By Allen VanNess (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Winning their last six contests by an average of nearly 21 points per game, the Hartville Lady Eagles used a sizzling start to build a sizable lead and held on to defeat the Fordland Lady Eagles, 70-63, on Thursday night.
On paper, there is not much that separates the two Summit Conference rivals. Along with sharing their mascots, both teams came into Thursday night with nearly identical overall records, the same conference record (4-0), ranked eighth (Hartville) and ninth (Fordland) in Class 2 and 13th (Fordland) and 14th (Hartville) in the latest Ozarks Sports Zone Girls Basketball Power Rankings.
Unlike a string of recent games, it didn’t take long for junior point guard Sadie Chisum, sophomore forward Grace Culver and the rest of the Hartville Lady Eagles to take a lead they would never relinquish.
“Here lately we have been struggling to get going,” said Hartville head coach Mike Percival. “We have been starting slowly and getting down early and then having to climb back in it, but tonight that was kind of unusual that we started so quickly.”
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Besides hitting a free throw to begin the game, Chisum missed her next three shots of the quarter, but that didn’t stop her from making an immediate impact early on, as she assisted on the next three baskets to help Hartville get off to an early 11-5 lead.
“As a point guard, I know that my job is to get my teammates open,” Chisum said. “Since I couldn’t get anything early on, I thought if I could get a few assists that might give me a little confidence to get going.”
Get going is exactly what Chisum did, and while Percival knows that as Chisum goes so goes the Hartville Lady Eagles, she definitely did not have to do this one alone.
“Sadie Chisum kind of runs the show for us, and she did a good job for us tonight, but we had some other kids step up and make some shots,” said Percival. “Skylar Divine and Ally Coltrane made some shots early, and I think Grace Culver went seven for nine from the free throw line and hit some big ones when we needed it. It was really a group effort.”
Chisum finished with a team high 23 points, while Culver poured in an impressive 17 points as she battled inside the paint for the Lady Eagles. Fordland was led by their junior standout guard Sophie Sparks who led all players with 24 points.
With Hartville increasing the lead to as many as 13 points early in the second quarter, Fordland head coach Kevin McDaris leaned on Sparks and junior Emily Whiteford to keep his team in it.
And they did just that as Fordland pulled to within 5 late in the quarter.
“They made some shots [in the second quarter],” Percival said of the rival Lady Eagles. “Coach McDaris felt like they didn’t shoot it very well, but we felt they made some really big shots when they really needed them. Between that and some defensive breakdowns, we did some things offensively that, if we had a second chance, we would bail out of. I’m proud of the girls. They hung on and persevered, which is the name of the game right now.”
Hartville started the second half much like the first, and the lead ballooned to as many as seventeen points midway through the third quarter.
“I just told them we needed to execute,” Percival told his team at halftime. “We were doing some things well and just missed some easy shots we thought could have increased the lead a little bit more at halftime. Basically, I just said we need to execute, knock down some open shots and tighten up a little bit defensively, and we did that a little bit to start the second half.”
While the Fordland Lady Eagles clawed their way back to get it to one possession with 18 seconds remaining in the game, Hartville sealed the victory with some clutch free throws.
The win also gives Hartville the upper hand in the battle for the conference title with only four games remaining until the district tournament.
“We still have plenty of things to work on and get better because, hopefully, down the road we will have to do this one again,” commented Percival of the win.
As for Chisum and the rest of the Hartville Lady Eagles, they recognize an early lead almost got away from them, but they also realize it will take their entire team if they want to reach their ultimate goal.
“We had a big lead at the beginning and we kind of let that go a little bit, but we pulled through as a team,” Chisum said.
Next up, Hartville travels to Houston on Feb. 5, while Fordland begins a five game home stand against the Gainesville Bulldogs.
