Lady Warriors get big win at buzzer as HV hosts Cosby

Published 2:07 pm Friday, February 3, 2023

The Lady Warriors got one of their biggest wins of the season as they posted a 46-44 win over visiting Cosby. The first half was a back-and-forth contest that saw neither team go up by more than threepoints. Josephine Zeoli would down a left perimeter three to allow the Lady Warriors to keep pace with the Cosby Eagles in the first period; as the period closed, the Warriors would be down by one. The second period would see the Warriors post their best effort as senior Kadie Bailey would start to warm up, hitting two three-pointers and pushing the Warriors to a ten-point halftime lead.

Cosby would go on a 5-0 run after an Alexis Megaha steal and bucket to close the lead down to 28-23. Marcida Moore, who was all over the court on the night, would hit her backend free throw to push the Warriors back up by six with 6:11 left in the third. As was the case all evening, the Lady Warriors could not extend their lead as they struggled from the free throw line, particularly in the second half, going 9-21 from the charity stripe. A Cosby three-pointer would tie things at 34 at the 5:04 mark. Kadie Bailey, who is closing in on 1000 points, would hit another three-pointer, Mailey Guy would find a cutting Moore to push the Warrior lead back to five at 39-34 with 6:04 left in the game. Leading by seven after a Cayden Anderson layup, the Eagles would storm back, hitting a layup and a three-pointer to close it to 41-38 with 2:12 left in the final period. Caden Anderson would drop both of her free throws to make it 45-40, only to see Eagles point guard Shylee Shelton hit a three-pointer to close it to 45-43, Cayden Anderson would quickly be fouled and she would hit one of her two free throws to make it a three-point contest. The Eagles would be fouled on a three-point attempt and Cosby’s Shelton would hit two of her three attempts. Cayden once again would quickly be fouled and hit the front end of her free-throws to make it 46-44. Cosby would attempt a three-pointer with three seconds left but the try would clank off the front of the rim and the Lady Warriors Anderson would wisely dribble out the final seconds. Warrior guard Marcida Moore would speak on what this game would mean to her team “it was a big team effort; games like this come down to the time we put in the gym, we played them earlier and they took us out of the game in the second half.” Lady Warriors Coach Hill sees an improving squad as tournament time approaches, “free throw shooting was horrendous tonight, but I’m proud of them; we are getting there, we are going in the right direction; we just have to continue in that direction.” The Lady Warriors will host University High on Saturday night.

The Warriors would show a lot of grit but just couldn’t hang with the Cosby Eagles. Ron Paul Parker would get the Warriors going in the first period with back-to-back layups and make it a 6-6 game early in the first period. The Eagles would begin to pull away after Shayden O’Dell would hit a couple of three-pointers to make it 21-12 to close out the first period. Sidney Hoilman would grab an offensive rebound a put back the ball with purpose at the 5:52 mark of the second to close the Eagles lead down to 21-14 with 5:51 left in the second period. But a 14-2 run by Cosby would give the Eagles a substantial lead going into the locker room.

Sophomore Ben Miller would come off the bench for the Warriors and provide a spark as he would hit back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to 54-28.  Reserve player Zac Stansell would score the final point of the night off a free-throw attempt and bring the Warrior faithful to their feet. The Warriors will travel to Johnson County to take on the Longhorns Tuesday night.