Huntingdon Lady Hawks end season in GSAC semis

LaGRANGE, Ga. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team came out strong during the early minutes of Friday's Great South Athletic Conference tournament semifinals.

But a more than 10-minute scoring lull and a dominant Maryville team proved too much for the Lady Hawks in a 74-40 loss. Maryville will try to win its eighth GSAC tournament title on Saturday when the Scots play LaGrange at 1 p.m. (Central).

Huntingdon ends the season at 16-11. Despite the disappointing ending, the season was one of the best in Lady Hawks' history. Only two other Huntingdon women's basketball teams have won as many games in a season.

"This wasn't our night. Maryville has a talented team and you can't have letdowns against them," Huntingdon coach Buzz Phillips said. "This isn't the way we wanted it to end, but our girls accomplished a lot and should be proud of this season."

The Lady Hawks opened the game with a 10-2 run and were more than holding their own against the Scots. Even as Maryville (20-6) battled back into the game midway through the first half, the Lady Hawks continued to match the Scots.

That changed in the final minutes of the half. A Raven Prater basket gave Huntingdon a 21-19 lead with 3:29 left in the first half. Huntingdon wouldn't score again until a Chelsea Graham 3-pointer with 12:24 left in the game. By then, Maryville led 44-24. The Scots took a 59-24 lead before Huntingdon scored again.

LaTerial Williams led Huntingdon with eight points and Jodi Montalvo pulled down seven rebounds.

Janell Menard led Maryville with 15 points, Kiera Payne added 13 points and nine rebounds and Alex Bond and Tayler Smith each had 10 points.