Lady Hawks rally to beat LaGrange in conference opener

By Chuck Tidmore

Sports Information Assistant 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Senior Jello Weatherspoon scored eight points in the fourth quarter to help the Huntingdon women's basketball team secure a 58-55 win over LaGrange on Wednesday.

Weatherspoon hit a pair of free throws with 6:27 left to play to give the Lady Hawks their final lead of the game.

With the win, Huntingdon improves to 8-2 on the season and 1-0 in USA South Athletic Conference play. LaGrange falls to 4-6 and 0-1 in the conference.

LaGrange opened the game with a 21 point first quarter and led by as many as 14 with 3:56 left in the second, but Huntingdon used a 9-3 run to close the half and trailed 31-23 at the break.  

"I thought we played very hard," head coach Buzz Phillips said. "We made a lot of mistakes early but cut the lead in the second quarter to have a shot to make it great game. We came out the second half and still made some mistakes but we made up for it with heart, desire and defense."

The Lady Hawks battled LaGrange close to start the third quarter and took a 40-38 lead with 2:52 left while outscoring the Panthers 19-13.

Both teams exchanged the lead throughout the fourth quarter while Huntingdon took its biggest lead of the game (5) off a Weatherspoon 3-pointer with 3:22 left to play. Junior Juliette Harp recorded her fifth block of the night with just over a minute to play to deny the Panthers a chance to close the lead.

"I thought our defense was a big key," Phillips said. "LaGrange went to a 3-point offense in the beginning of the fourth quarter and our defense did really well defending it. To come back and get the win the way we did is something to build off of. We're playing well and could end the weekend 3-0 if we play the way we did tonight."

Weatherspoon led all scorers with 16 points and added four rebounds. Harp scored 13 points and added four rebounds and five blocks.

Freshman Maia Hill scored 14 points and recorded four steals and three assists while T.I. Duncan had six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Keturah Billen had a team high nine rebounds and added five points.  

Huntingdon hosts conference opponent Agnes Scott on Saturday for a 2 p.m. matchup.

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