Playing their first game since February 5, the Hopkinsville Lady Tigers started strong on Saturday at Hopkins County Central but were ultimately undone by turnovers in a 58-53 loss to the Lady Storm.
The Lady Tigers slip to 1-4 with a trip to face Owensboro coming up on Tuesday in the first of three games next week. Hopkins Central stops a two-game slide to improve to 6-7 overall.
Hoptown led 6-1 early on with 4 points from Donisha Flowers, but the Lady Storm answered with 7-straight to take an 8-6 advantage after two free throws by Madison Grigg.
Faith Dansbury nailed a 3-pointer to start the 2nd quarter and put the Lady Tigers in front, with the lead reaching 6 at 18-12 after a technical foul on the Hopkins Central bench. That seemed to fire up the Lady Storm and they closed the quarter on a 7-1 spurt to lead 21-19 at the break.
Hoptown’s Shaterrea Bellamy connected on a 3-pointer to tie the game at 27-27 just short of the midway mark of the third quarter. Bri Fritz gave the Lady Storm the lead again with a layup, before 4-straight points from Flowers and a Jakayla Epps 3-pointer put the Lady Tigers up 34-30.
However, a Grigg 3 with 1:06 left in the third nudged Hopkins Central back in front 38-37 and the teams were tied 41-41 with a quarter to play.
Dansbury hit another 3 and Flowers followed with a runner to put Hoptown up 46-41, but once again the Lady Storm answered and they led 53-46 after a pair of free throws by Keri Reynolds. Hopkins Central led by as many as 9 over the final 2:30 and the final margin of 5 was as close as the Lady Tigers could get.
Flowers scored 15 of her game-high 19 in the second half, followed for the Lady Tigers by Dansbury’s 11.
Sutton was the lone double-figure scorer for Hopkins Central with 11, but five other players scored 7 or more. The Lady Storm defense forced Hoptown into 26 turnovers.
Hopkinsville 8 11 22 12 — 53
Hopkins Central 8 13 20 16 — 58
Hopkinsville (1-4) — Flowers 19, Dansbury 11, Epps 8, Bellamy 7, Cherry 2, McGee 2, Wilson 2, Samuel 1
Hopkins Central (6-7) — Sutton 11, Jones 9, Fritz 8, Grigg 8, Keli Reynolds 8, Keri Reynolds 7, Peyton 3, Hollis 2, Peyton 1
