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.
