North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple is hoping his team can end its season the same way it started - with a tournament championship.
The Lady Charging Wildcats cruised through the first two rounds of the Heavenly Hoops Invitational and breezed to a tournament title with a 67-36 victory over Star City on Saturday at Mount St. Mary in Little Rock.
“It’s definitely a pretty good way to start the season, that’s for sure,” Fimple said. “I thought we played well throughout the tournament, especially [Saturday]. We shot it really well, and that always cures a lot of angst that you may have going in.”
The Lady Charging Wildcats (3-0) beat Sylvan Hills and Cabot by an average of 35 points in the first two games of the tournament and continued that domination against the Lady Bulldogs.
North Little Rock led 44-24 at the half. Sophomore guard Kyra Collier had 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals to lead the Lady ‘Cats. Junior guard Malica Monk finished with 16 points while Camdyn McDaniel added nine points, all on three-pointers.
Jayda Harden scored a team high 17 points to lead Star City (4-2).
“We knew we were going to have to get after it on the defensive end, which is always going to be the case whenever you play against a team like Star City,” Fimple said. “[Star City Coach Becky Brown] always does a phenomenal job with her girls. [Harden] is a really good player, but we shot it so well and were able to get a lead on them.
“That forced them to kind of play catch up, and that’s what we wanted to do.”
Collier scored nine of the team’s first 11 points, helping stake her team to a 16-6 lead after the first quarter. Star City’s Lindsay Kennon nailed a 13-footer to open up the second quarter, but Halley Hill’s three-pointer started a 9-0 run for the Lady ‘Cats that essentially blew open the game.
North Little Rock led by as many as 21 in the first half after Monk’s lay-up gave the Lady ‘Cats a 41-20 lead before settling for a20-point cushion at intermission.
The Lady ‘Cats continued their onslaught in the second half, scoring 14 of the first 15 points of the third quarter. Brogan Jones, who finished with 6 points, 4 rebounds and 4 blocks, connected on a short bank shot midway through the quarter before Fimple began substituting freely the rest of the way.
“We’ve got a lot of depth this year and that’s going to help us,” Fimple said. “We’ve got three really good post players and six pretty good guards. Hopefully, I won’t be able to screw that up as the season goes on.”
Sports, Pages 29 on 11/24/2013