ALMA — Huntsville suffered from a slow start in its first two Class 5A state tournament games, but the Lady Eagles still managed to advance.
They had such trouble at all in their state semifinal game Tuesday afternoon.
Huntsville 56, Hot Springs 40
Huntsville^14^13^13^16^ — ^56
Hot Springs^10^8^7^15^ — ^40
Huntsville (21-7): Burgess 26, Cagle 10, McCartney 7, Butler 6, Gragg 5, Campbell 2.
Hot Springs (22-6): Tidwell 13, Clayborn 12, Watkins 9, White 6.
Senior Vanessa Burgess poured in a game-high 26 points and the Lady Eagles never trailed in a 56-40 victory over Hot Springs at Charles B. Dyer Arena.
Huntsvillle (21-7) will now take on Paragould in the state finals this weekend at a time and day to be determined.
Huntsville coach Charles Berry couldn't have been happier with his team's overall effort, but he was especially pleased with the Lady Eagles defense against the lightning-quick Lady Trojans, who had their 21-game winning streak snapped.
"We're usually a man defensive team," Berry said. "We put this little 1-3-1 zone in today. Our post girls did a great job."
The Lady Eagles zone limited penetration and forced Hot Springs to shot from the perimeter and the Lady Trojans couldn't find the range, making just 13-of-44 (30 percent) from the floor. That figure included only 3-of-18 (17 percent) from 3-point range.
Hot Springs coach Mark Upshaw agreed Huntsville's defense, which forced the Lady Trojans to shoot from outside was the difference.
"They shut down our inside game," Upshaw said. "Coach Berry's been doing this for a long time and they shut off our inside and made us prove it from the outside and we didn't do it.
"We got behind and had to gamble and they were able to throw it over the top of us."
Junior guard Berniezha Tidwell, Hot Spring's leading scorer, picking up three first-quarter fouls didn't help his team either, Upshaw said.
"It slowed our tempo down," Upshaw said. "We wanted to turn this into and up-tempo game and she's the one that pushes the tempo for us. It hurt when she had to come out."
Tidwell still led Hot Springs with 13 points, while Ashley Clayborn added 12.
Upshaw acknowledged the Lady Trojans had no answer for Burgess, who made 8-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free throw line. The 5-9 senior also hit two 3-pointers. But other Huntsville players hitting from the perimeter made it impossible to double-team Burgess.
"She's a heck of a player," Upshaw said. "But her teammates on the perimeter helped her today. We wanted to double-team her, but they made some threes."
Huntsville had no problem making shots as the Lady Eagles hit a sizzling 67 percent (20-of-30) from the floor, including 4-of-6 3-pointers. The Lady Eagles were also 12-of-16 from the free throw line.
Berry acknowledged many of those shots were from close range, but that was by design.
"I'm a little bit old-fashioned," said the 79-year-old Berry. "We like to get the ball inside. We don't live by the three.
We were real consistent all night, both offensively and defensively. I feel like this might have been our best ballgame here. We didn't have any lull in the game at all."
Senior Cara Cagle was also in double figures for Huntsville with 10 points.
Sports on 03/12/2014