Hawks Lose Tight One With Belhaven

MONTGOMERY,Ala.- Huntingdon women's basketball (6-12 overall, 3-6 CCS) fell in a highly contested battle with the Blazers of Belhaven University (6-14 overall, 5-7 CCS) by a score of 75-67.

How it happened

First Quarter

• In the first two minutes of the game, Belhaven jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead
• Trailing 8-6, Huntingdon found life with a 5-0 run to take a 11-8 lead with 1:55 remaining in the quarter
• A jumper from Cassidy Campbell and two free throws from Deshauna Foote closed out the first quarter with the Hawks leading 15-12

Second Quarter

• The Hawks defense suffocated the Blazer offense in the first half, allowing for two layups from Briana McGruder to maintain the Hawks slight lead at 19-15 with 7:35 remaining in the half
• Following a 3 minute scoring drought for both teams, Briana McGruder found Kennedy-Ryan Jackson on a backdoor cut to push the Hawks lead to 21-15 with 4:43 remaining in the quarter
• Following a 4 point swing from Belhaven, Briana Stuckey finished a tough layup through contact to push the Huntingdon lead back to 4, 23-19 with 2 minutes remaining until halftime
• Deshauna Foote put in a jumper in the final seconds of the half to give Huntingdon a 27-21 edge at the midway point.

Third Quarter

• The Hawks continued to stifle the Belhaven offensive attack, extending their lead to 30-22 on a layup from Faith Johnson at the 8:34 mark in the quarter
• Belhaven found rhythm with a 7-0 run to reduce the Huntingdon lead to 32-29 with 5:47 remaining in the quarter
• Holding a slight 34-33 lead, Cassidy Campbell drilled a shot from deep to extend Huntingdon's lead to 37-33 with 4 minutes remaining in the quarter
• Belhaven closed the third quarter with a 11-0 run, taking a 44-37 lead into the final quarter of play

Fourth Quarter

• Faith Johnson put an end to the Blazer run with a short jumpshot, cutting the lead to 46-39 with 9:10 remaining
• Briana McGruder came to life in this quarter, scoring 8 consecutive points to put the Hawks behind 48-47 with 6 minutes remaining
• With every shot the Blazers made, Huntingdon matched it, but they still trailed 56-51 with two minutes to go
• Unable to find a consistent rhythm of their own, the Hawks ran out of time and were forced to foul, resulting in a 65-57 loss to the Blazers 

Key Notes

• There were only 3 shots from deep made the entire game, with Belhaven drilling 2 and Huntingdon scoring 1
• The Hawks were outrebounded 38-35
• Huntingdon was outscored in the paint 34-28

Hawk Top Performers

• #35 Briana McGruder- 14 points, 4 rebounds
• #34 Deshauna Foote- 10 points, 9 rebounds
• #14 Briana Stuckey- 8 points, 4 rebounds

The Hawks look to bounce back on February 2nd on the road at Berea. Tip off is set for 5:00 PM CT.