The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

Sports

Related Photos

  • Tom Waddill/The Huntsville Item

    images_sizedimage_314230723

Discussion

November 10, 2009

The press is on

Lady Hornets notch win in season opener, Oliphant's debut as Huntsville head coach

By Cody Stark

Jay Oliphant’s debut as a head basketball coach came sooner than expected Tuesday night, but the Lady Hornets made it a successful start for their new head coach.

With a pressing defense and a strong inside game, the Lady Hornets coasted past A&M; Consolidated for a 71-36 victory at the old Hornet Gym.

The game was originally scheduled to take place in College Station, but the Lady Tigers got crossed up and arrived in Huntsville around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

With Brenham and Magnolia playing a Class 4A volleyball playoff match in the Paul Bohan Hornet Gym on Tuesday night, Oliphant’s first game as a head coach had to be played in the same place where he dominated during his Hornet playing days in the late 1990s.

“It made me more relaxed. I felt real good playing at home,” said Oliphant, who was named district player of the year and guided the Hornets to the state playoffs in 1998. “I didn’t think we were going to play at home until Dec. 15, but under the circumstances it happened sooner. Luckily my girls came out and played well, so it was a good thing.”

Playing in the old gym, the Lady Hornets (1-0) dominated the way their new coach used to. Ronisha Major and Brenna Fuller controlled the paint, scoring 21 and 15 points, respectively.

Huntsville was in a fullcourt press from start to finish and outcored the Lady Tigers 22-10 to take a commanding 38-17 lead into halftime.

The Lady Hornets kept up the energy to begin the third quarter. Major scored a layup and Dequayla Terry came up with a steal and found Ceidra Coleman underneath the basket to push the lead to 42-19 three minutes into the period.

Consolidated didn’t have an answer for Huntsville’s trapping defense. Major scored three straight baskets to close out the third with a 59-27 advantage, which basically sealed the victory.

“We didn’t want to run anymore at all, so we came out trapping all over the floor,” Major said. “They couldn’t handle the pressure and we were stealing the ball back-to-back-to-back.”

The Lady Hornets got plenty of offense. Coleman finished with eight points, while Terry chipped in six. Mya Perry had five points and Alexis Greene and Dre James each scored four. Brittany Byrd and Karla Kizze each had three points in the win.

But the story was Huntsville’s defense. The Lady Hornets completely shut down the Lady Tigers in the fourth quarter.

Consolidated didn’t score until the 2:20 mark on a bucket by Ashley Adyeni, who scored a team-high 14 points. The Lady Tigers closed the game with a 9-2 run, but baskets by Fuller, Terry and a free throw by Byrd had given the Lady Hornets a 69-27 lead with four minutes to go.

“I have quite a few athletes and I want them to get up and down and score in transition because setting up an offense is a struggle and setting up a defense to stop someone’s offense can be a struggle,” Oliphant said. “I want us to run up and down and score some easy points.”

Huntsville hits the road to play Madisonville on Friday night at 6:30. The Lady Hornets, barring any more mix-ups, will not play at home again until Dec. 15 in the district opener against Brenham.

Text Only
Sports
  • 2-11-kriston-driving.jpg Hornets still rocking

    The Hornets knocked off another one Friday night and improved their playoff chances immensely. Led by seniors Kriston Minor and Abram Veasey, the Huntsville boys basketball team bounced the Bulldogs from Summer Creek 52-38 to improve to 6-7 in District 18-4A play.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bulldogs back in the playoffs

    Centerville didn’t mess around with the Bulldogs Friday night and almost snuck out of New Waverly with a win.
    But thanks to junior point guard Brent Purvis making four out of five free throws at the end of the game, the Dogs came away with a 57-54 victory and solidified their third-place standing in District 23-2A.

    February 10, 2012

  • Hornet swimmers positioned well for today’s regional finals

    All the Huntsville swimmers wanted to do and needed to do in the regional swimming meet was to put themselves in position to qualify for state. Well, consider that mission accomplished. In every event in which Huntsville qualified for in the Class 4A Region V swimming meet, no matter whether it was as an individual or in a relay, the Hornets and Lady Hornets finished among the top eight in the preliminaries Friday to advance to today’s finals at the Magnolia ISD Natatorium.

    February 10, 2012

  • Hornet golfers get out to strong start in Bastrop

    Halfway into their latest tournament, the Hornets are set up well to win quite a bit of hardware. Following the first 18 holes in the Evans-Dodson Memorial golf tournament in Bastrop, the Huntsville boys are just four shots off the pace and have a pair of players within range from sitting atop the individual medalist leaderboard.

    February 10, 2012

  • Huntsville wrestlers gain experience at regional meet

    The experience wasn’t as long as they would’ve hoped, but they’ll take it just the same. Competing in the regional meet in Katy, a pair of Huntsville wrestlers earned hard-fought, elusive wins, but fell in the consolation quarterfinals.

    February 10, 2012

  • 2-10-hornet-swimming-jaron-wagner.jpg Raring to go

    They’re as ready as they’re going to be. With two weeks to prepare from their district meet, the Huntsville swimmers will take the next step toward qualifying for state today. Over the next two days, a group of Hornets and Lady Hornets will take part in the Class 4A Region V swimming meet at the Magnolia I.S.D. Natatorium with the preliminaries taking place today and the finals on Saturday.

    February 9, 2012 2 Photos

  • Next week’s playoff matchups all set

    After spending countless hours in the gym, the hard work has paid off for both the girls basketball teams from Huntsville and New Waverly. Now the fun begins as the Class 4A and 2A girls basketball playoffs get going next week.

    February 9, 2012

  • Scott: Kats still looking for go-to guy

    February 9, 2012

  • College Scene: Former Hornets doing well at respective colleges

    February 9, 2012

  • 2-9-gatlin-driving.jpg OUTGUNNED: First-place Mavericks shoot down Sam Houston, run winning streak to 14

    Texas-Arlington had an answer for every Sam Houston run Wednesday night on the way to a 75-63 victory over the Bearkats. It was the Mavericks’ 14th consecutive win and improved their Southland Conference record to 10-0.
    The last team to start league action with such perfection was Sam Houston in 2010, a team which won the conference’s regular season as well as the postseason tournament championship.

    February 8, 2012 1 Photo