After opening the Holiday Classic with a win on Friday night, the host Heritage Christian Academy girls’ basketball team dropped two games on Saturday to fall short of the championship game. The Lady Warriors fell 43-27 to Oak Ridge Christian on Saturday morning to drop into the loser’s bracket, but still had a chance to reach the championship with an afternoon win over Trinity Christian Academy. However, the Titans proved to be too much, winning 40-32 to knock the Lady Warriors out of the tournament. HCA now stands at 4-3 on the season.
Points were hard to come by in the first game, with the Lady Warriors leading Oak Ridge Christian 13-11 at the half. Kinley Deason carried HCA over the first 16 minutes, scoring 10 points.
However, HCA could only manage 4 third-quarter points, and Oak Ridge’s Gracie Clark took over with 12 in the frame, giving Oak Ridge a 27-17 advantage going into the final quarter. Two free throws by Logan Gibson pulled the Lady Warriors to within 6 at 25-19 with just over 7 minutes to play, but a Clark bucket just over a minute later restored Oak Ridge’s double digit lead that they held the rest of the way.
Chelsea Dortch scored 7 fourth-quarter points to join Deason with 10 for the Lady Warriors. Clark’s 26 led Oak Ridge, followed by Shalyn Bratcher with 11.
The Lady Warriors were hindered by another slow start in the afternoon game, managing only 8 first-half points to trail Trinity Christian Academy by 9 at halftime. Dortch got hot after halftime, scoring 7 points to help HCA to a 17-point third quarter. Her pull up followed by a jumper by Abbi Bullock gave them a 4-point cushion, but a Trinity 3-pointer at the buzzer cut the lead to 25-24.
Trinity regained the lead 10 seconds into the final quarter and never gave it up. A Deason basket with 5 minutes to play got HCA to within 2 at 29-27, but they couldn’t get any closer
Kinley’s 11 points led all scorers, followed by Dortch with 7 and Bullock with 6. Kati Hauer and Hannah Montgomery each scored 10 for Trinity.