Harmony Grove senior Christian Brown stole the show Monday as the Cardinals won in a blowout, 75-40, over Sparkman in the Ouachita Tournament.
Brown knocked down 11 3-pointers in two quarters of action. Brown, Saline County’s second leading scorer, hit six in the first quarter, sat the second quarter and knocked in five in 4 minutes of the third quarter.
“Christian was feeling it,” said Head Coach Jeff Hogue. “He hit two on the first two possessions so I decided to ride him in the first quarter. He hit six in that quarter. He cooled off and I sat him in the second quarter. I started the starters in the third and he hit five more in about four minutes of play.”
Eleven 3s is not Brown’s career high. As a sophomore, Brown hit 12 while living in Tennessee.
Harmony Grove led by 30 at halftime before rolling to a large margin of victory.
“A lot of those guys put in a lot of work on their own,” Hogue said. “We took seven days off and you have to trust them to do a little work on their own. I am sure a few of them ate a little more turkey than they worked on basketball.
“Enough of them worked on it and it showed. Usually, first practice and first game back is kind of ugly, but we actually played decent. It was a good game to get back on.”
Austin Brown, junior forward, added 14 in the win for the Cardinals.
With the win, Harmony Grove moves to 8-3 overall on the season and will take on Magnet Cove tonight at 7:30 in Round 2.
Lady Cardinals 39,
Sparkman 28
Harmony Grove collected 48 rebounds Monday against Sparkman in the Ouachita Tournament, helping it to a 39-28 win. The victory snaps a three-game losing skid.
“We had 30 defensive rebounds and 18 offensive,” said Head Coach Chris Smith. “I’ll take that.”
Senior guard and team leader Morgan Efird returned to action, but was a bit rusty, according to Smith.
“She didn’t play well but I was expecting that,” Smith said. “Any time you are off for two weeks and not able to do a whole lot, you expect that out of a kid. She didn’t shoot well. When you get a big break you usually don’t shoot the ball well.
“I’d rather not play well and win than not play well and lose.”
Harmony Grove led 24-12 at halftime before taking a 27-19 advantage into the fourth quarter.
Leighton Withers led the Lady Cardinals with nine, followed by Hannah Hill and Madison Mickle with seven each. Efird finished with five.
“Leighton got a lot of her points around the basket and Hannah Hill had a really good game,” Smith said. “We had six points here and six points there, but we only made on 3-pointer and we probably shot 15. We were open a lot and we are going to have to play a lot better (Monday) I can tell you that.”
Mickle, still battling an ailing knee, was not “100 percent,” Smith said, but was able to move better than the previous game where she was extremely limited.
“I am playing her right now, but she is supposed to have an MRI soon,” Smith said. “I thought she played better than she did two weeks ago.”
The Lady Cardinals will take on Ouachita today at 3 p.m. in Round 2.