By Kenneth Schott
HAMPSHIRE — Add hot shooting to a strong defensive effort, and it resulted in another District 10-A victory Friday for Hampshire’s girls.
The Lady Hawks defeated Mt. Pleasant 57-34 to remain undefeated in the district.
For the second straight game, Hampshire (8-3, 2-0) came out early with a full-court press to overwhelm their opponents. Hampshire forced Mt. Pleasant into 10 first-quarter turnovers. The visitors managed just one field goal attempt during this stretch, often struggling to advance the ball into the frontcourt.
Meanwhile, Hampshire’s shooters were near flawless in converting the turnovers into transition layups or connecting on open high-percentage shots.
Hampshire scored the first 15 points while Mt. Pleasant (4-10, 1-1) could hardly initiate its offense.
“We pressure the ball early,” said coach Ronnie Brewer. “That’s the style we like to play if we can. I thought the press looked really good early on.”
At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Hawks had a commanding 21-4 lead.
They stretched the lead to 27 points at the half, 42-15.
In the first half, Hampshire was 16-of-23 (69.6 percent) from the floor and a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line. It was completely different than Tuesday’s win over Culleoka, when the Lady Hawks struggled to score and started out 3-of-10 from the free throw line.
“We did shoot the ball very well,” said Brewer. “There are some things we need to work on, but I thought we shot the ball extremely well.”
Kortney Rowland led the Lady Hawks with 23 points, 17 of them in the first half. She was 10-of-12 from the field, 1-of-2 from beyond the 3-point arc, and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.
Kayla Stephens scored 17 for Hampshire. Addison Workman scored 10 points to lead Mt. Pleasant.
Tables turned: After giving up 14 3-pointers to open league play Tuesday night, Mt. Pleasant hit 10 in Friday’s 72-39 road win.
A trio of treys came in the third quarter, as the Tigers went on an 18-3 run to break the game open.
Kentra Frierson hit two of those 3s and finished with five overall.
“He gets hot sometimes,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Chris Carney. “I thought our team really shared the ball well (during the run). We gave up good shots to get great ones.”
Hampshire was down by 10 after the first quarter, 19-9, but Cameryn Bass led the Hawks on a comeback. Bass had 13 of his team’s 20 points in the quarter. He was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field in the second quarter, including 2-of-2 on 3-pointers, and he connected on his only free throw attempt of the quarter to complete a three-point play.
Behind Bass’ strong effort, the Hawks battled back from the 10-point deficit to tie the game at the half, 29-all.
Hampshire’s zone defense also gave Mt. Pleasant (6-4, 1-1) problems during the quarter, but Carney said his team made adjustments at halftime.
“We were attacking their zone on the offensive end,” said Carney. “We kind of settled in the first half.”
Frierson finished with a game-high 21 points and Demarkus Brown added 11 for the visitors. Bass scored 19 points to lead Hampshire (1-8, 0-2), with Ethan Bowden scoring 10.
Hampshire girls 57, Mt. Pleasant 34
M 4 11 8 11 — 34
H 21 21 10 5 — 57
Mt. Pleasant (34) — Addison Workman 10, Kenzie Gray 8, Kielee Bradley 6, Ayanna Jones 4, Mariy Rogers 4, Emily Crossman 2
Hampshire (57) — Kortney Rowland 23, Kayla Stephens 17, Karlee Rowland 8, Ansley Stoner 4, Kadence Stoner 4, Madison Cagle 1
3-pointers — Mt. Pleasant 1 (Bradley), Hampshire 2 (Ko. Rowland, Stephens)
Mt. Pleasant boys 72, Hampshire 39
M 19 10 21 22 — 72
H 9 20 5 5 — 39
Mt. Pleasant (72) — Kentra Frierson 21, Demarkus Brown 11, Hayden Holt 9, Bennett Hughes 9, Keevan Cooper 7, Tip Marlow 6, Gavin Alderson 2, Quinn Johnson 2, Hardin Hughes 2, Eli Harvey 2, Chris Andrews 1
Hampshire (39) — Cameryn Bass 19, Ethan Bowden 10, Jed Page 6, Peyton Morton 2, Everette Delk 1, Payden Seaman 1
3-pointers — Mt. Pleasant 10 (Frierson 5, Brown 3, Holt, B. Hughes), Hampshire 3 (Bass 2, Bowden)