Lady Hawks rally for conference win over Covenant

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon women's basketball team got off to a slow start on Saturday but rallied for a 76-63 win over Covenant.

The Lady Hawks trailed for almost 25 minutes of the game, falling behind by as many as 10 points in the first half and trailing by eight points early in the second half. But Huntingdon regrouped in the final 15 minutes of the game.

The Lady Hawks (14-5, 6-4 USA South) turned an eight-point deficit into an eight-point lead in a little more than a four-minute span. A Raven Prater 3-pointer capped a 22-6 run to give Huntingdon a 51-43 lead with 14:05 to play.

Covenant (5-14, 2-9 USA South) pulled within two points midway through the second half before Huntingdon eased back ahead. Huntingdon led by at least seven points for the final eight minutes of the game.

"Coming off the win over LaGrange, I was worried that this might be a trap game for us. But I never imagined we would come out as flat as we did in the first half," Huntingdon head coach Buzz Phillips said. "We put ourselves in a deep hole, but we came out and played better in the second half. We started to play like we're supposed to. I think the biggest difference was our rebounding. We had 64 rebounds to their 31."

Coming off a 28-point performance against LaGrange on Thursday, Prater finished with five-3-pointers and a game-high 27 points against Covenant.

Pat Pickens turned in a third straight double-double with 19 points and 17 rebounds. Pickens is averaging 17.3 points and 14 rebounds during the past three games.

Jello Weatherspoon, Jodie Thomas and Mackenzie Garmany each finished with eight points and Tan Munford and Arbanee Dean each pulled down 10 rebounds.

Huntingdon travels to Piedmont on Feb. 8 for a 1 p.m. game.