Head coach Tom Hannah saw his Gardendale Lady Rockets put up a tough fight against Hayes on Tuesday night only to come up short.

By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



A cold shooting spell in the fourth quarter Tuesday night doomed the Gardendale Lady Rockets hopes of beating the visiting Hayes Lady Pacesetters in a battle for first place in 5A, Area 10 play.

The Lady Rockets trailed most of the first half, but took a 40-39 lead with 2:13 left in the third quarter when Taylor Powell scored on a put back in the lane.

After Powell’s basketball, however, Gardendale would score only 10 points over the final eight minutes of the contest while Hayes poured in 23 to grab a 62-50 win. Hayes remained unbeaten in area play at 4-0 and improved to 14-2 overall.

“Hayes is a really good basketball team,” Gardendale head coach Tom Hannah said. “They’ve won 14 games for a reason, because they’re very good. But, we just didn’t make enough shots after we took that second half lead. It’s the same old story with us, our shooting goes cold sometimes. That’s what hurt us tonight.”

Gardendale (12-5 overall, 1-2 in area play), lead 5-3 early, but a Hayes 3-pointer gave the Lady Pacesetters a 6-5 lead that they kept for the rest of the first half.

Hayes lead 18-14 after one quarter and increased the lead to six points at the half.

Powell’s shooting kept the Lady Rockets close in the first half as she scored nine points, including two 3-pointers, one in each of the first two quarters.

Gardendale opened the second half on a 14-7 run to grab the lead.

Powell had five points in the run, while Bekah Myers and Sidney Long added four points each.

After the Lady Rockets took the lead, the Lady Pacesetters went on a 7-0 run over the next minute and a half, but Gardendale pulled close again at the end of the third quarter when senior guard Kristian Moody sank a 3-pointer from the right corner as the buzzer sounded to cut the lead to 44-41.

“We’re better than we played tonight,” Hannah said. “Hopefully we’ll get one more chance to play them this year. If we meet them in the area tournament final I’d really like that. I think we can beat them if we play the way we’re capable of.”

Powell finished with a game-high 18 points, followed by Moody with nine, Long and Kenosha Carter scored six points each, Myers and Elizabeth Schultz scored four each and Alison McCaleb scored three points.

Carter grabbed six rebounds, Moody had four rebounds, three steals and four assists, Schultz and Powell had three rebounds each, Long had two steals and Myers had five rebounds and a blocked shot.

The loss was the second for the Lady Rockets in two meetings with the Lady Pacesetters this season..