Kym Ellison led a balanced Hardaway scoring attack right from the start of the Hawks’ 63-44 victory Tuesday during the first full day of action at the William Henry Shaw Christmas Tournament.
In fact, Ellison’s first two points technically came before the start.
Carver was handed an “administration” technical foul for not having the lineup handed into the official scorer 10 minutes before tip off and Ellison hit two free throws before the Hawks got the ball to start the game.
Alexcia McNeal hit a 3-pointer and Shaunice Bennett hit a leaner to put the Hawks up 9-3 midway through the first quarter against the bigger Tigers.
The Carver size advantage, thanks in no small part to 6-3 Ariel Butts, who has signed with Rutgers, in the paint, worked in a bit of an odd way in the first period. The Tigers hit three 3-pointers, each coming after a Butts offensive rebound.
“It was kind of funny,” Hardaway coach Kendall Mills said. “We came into this game hoping to drive and kick it out for 3-pointers, knowing Butts was going to be in the middle. We knew she was going to be tough on the boards, but we didn’t expect her to be getting assists from 3-pointers.”
Those 3-pointers helped the Tigers to a 16-15 lead after one period, but it would prove to be their last lead of the game.
Ellison, a Georgia Tech signee, heated up, scoring eight of her team-high 16 points during a 13-2 run that put the Hawks up 28-18 with four minutes to go in the half.
“We played a pretty good game. We were aggressive when we needed to be,” Mills said. “We came in as a lower seed (No. 4) because we’ve played a few more games than the other teams. We did some things really well and we wanted to attack (Butts) to make her work a bit.”
That plan seemed to work since Butts picked up her third personal foul and left for the bench with 2:25 to play in the second quarter and Hardaway ahead 30-19.
With Butts on the bench, even if for only a minute, Carver weathered the storm started a 6-0 run to cut the Hardaway lead to 30-25.
“We kind of lost a focus a bit during that run,” Mills said. “But we showed our work ethic.”
The result of that work ethic was back-to-back layups (one each by Shaunice Bennett and Tyra Lacey) with less than a minute to play, putting the Hawks up 34-25 at the half.
But Mills and the Hawks had built the foundation: go at Butts with the ball on the offensive end, collapse a zone around her on defense and hopefully frustrate her and get her out of her game.
“She changes everything you have to do on the floor,” Mills said. “When she is in there you have to account for her every move. “
Mills’ job got a little easier when Butts fouled out with 6:46 to play and her team down 47-34. She had nine points to go along with 19 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“Her leaving changed the way we played on offense,” Mills said in an understated fashion.
The Hawks went on to score their next 16 points in the paint that Butts had patrolled.
“It just opened the floor up for us,” Mills said.
Tynisha Mitchell scored 16 points for Carver. Kendra Weeks and Iesha Bonner each added seven points.
McNeal scored 15 points and Bennett added 14 for Hardaway.
Tuesday at Jordan High
@z-BR TabQuarters 1col:Carver 16 9 8 11--44
Hardaway 15 19 11 18--63
Carver (44)
Tynisha Mitchell 16, Butts 9, Weeks 7, Bonner 7, Brown 3, Walton 2
Hardaway (63)
Kym Ellison 16, Alexcia McNeal 15, Shaunice Bennett 14, Burgos 6, McElroy 6, Pipkins 4, Lacey 2
Team records: Hardaway 6-4, Carver 6-5. Next Hardaway vs. the Central-Spencer winner at 7 p.m. Thursday at Columbus State University. Carver vs. the Central-Spencer loser at 6 p.m. today at Columbus High School.
