We have all seen the instances where a singe player puts their team on their back and carries them to the “promised land.” But, more often than not, a solid “team” effort can overcome one player’s outstanding performance on any given day. That turned out to be the case Sunday afternoon, as the Lyon County Lady Lyons used a team effort, especially on defense and on the glass, to turn back the UHA Lady Blazers 50-35 in the championship game of the Girls 2nd Region All A tournament.
It took a great team effort to overcome the play of UHA’s Anshanique Leavell, who, for more than a half, was the only player to score for the Lady Blazers. Leavell’s first step quickness with the ball and on her defensive pressure, nearly was enough to send UHA to Richmond.
The game opened at a slow pace, with both teams trying to feel each other out early. Plus, both teams had trouble getting shots to drop in the opening minutes. Lyon County’s rebounding and defensive pressure with the story of the opening quarter, with the Lady Lyons leading 8-4.
In the second quarter, both teams did a little better offensively, but the Lady Lyons continued to dominate on the glass. For UHA, Leavell was playing well, but the rest of her team still had trouble getting shots to fall. By the end of the quarter it was Lyon County 22 and Anshanique Leavell 15.
Leavell and the Lady Blazers made a move early in the third quarter to get back in the game. Thanks to a 5-2 spurt at the beginning of the quarter, UHA cut the Lyon County lead to 4 at 24-20. Then something that had not happened much for the first part of the game, began to happen. Lyon County’s outside shots began to fall and the margin then began to grow. Lyon County finished the third quarter on a 19-4 run, to make the score 43-24, effectively knocking the Lady Blazers out of the contest.
UHA was not going down without a fight, but the hole by that time was too deep, as UHA could not close the gap to single digits for the remainder of the contest.
Lyon County’s big two of Allison Murphy and Hannah Holloman came up big on this Sunday afternoon. Holloman led the way with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Murphy added 16 points and 18 rebounds. Sophie Bingham connected on three 3-point shots to add nine points in the contest.
Anshanique Leavell did her part and then some for the Lady Blazers, coming up with 28 of her team’s 35 points. Alex Juckett added 4 points for UHA.
A big story in the game was Lyon County’s dominance on the backboard. The Lady Lyons outrebounded UHA by a margin of 46-22.
The win improves Lyon County’s record to 12-5, while UHA falls to 8-10.
The Lady Lyons will be returning to the All A Classic state tournament for the first time since 2007, when they advanced to the semifinals. Their only other appearance was in 2006.
