Hornets defeated by Gilman, fall to Tigers
The Colby girls basketball team took on the Gilman Pirates and the Stratford Tigers over the past week. While they hung with the Pirates all game and made a late comeback in Stratford, the Hornets could not come away with a win. The two losses dropped Colby to 2-14.
69-59
Colby hosted Gilman Tuesday night for a Cloverbelt-East matchup, hoping to upset the second-place Pirates and avenge a 53-44 loss earlier in the season. In a back and forth contest that was closer than the final score might indicate, the Hornets once again found themselves on the wrong end of a final score decided in the last few minutes of the game.
In the first game against the Pirates, Colby had difficulties containing Gilman’s top scoring duo, Tatum Weir and Danielle Mann. Once again, the pair proved to be a force down on the blocks, using their height to grab rebounds and get short-range baskets.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the court, the Hornets adopted the opposite strategy, opting to find the holes in Gilman’s 2-3 zone defense along the perimeter and strike from beyond the three-point line.
In a battle of opposing offensive ideologies created by various mismatches, neither team could take the definitive advantage. The Hornets held the largest lead of the first half, up 21-14 at one point, but Gilman’s consistency in the post allowed them to make up ground when Colby’s outside shooting momentarily went cold.
Despite the Hornets connecting on five three-point shots in the half and getting 12 points from Hayden Willner as the senior cleaned up the boards and supplied fast break offense, the home team still found themselves down by two at halftime.
While the game remained close in the second half, the two teams saw their roles reversed, with Colby in the position of chasing after the Pirates, rather than the other way around. Five more threes in the second period, courtesy of Angelique Hernandez, Alexis Vanderhoof and Hannah Trush, kept the Hornets within striking distance.
A free throw from Kylie Orth gave Colby their first lead of the period at 52-51 and a three from Hernandez expanded it to 55-53 with five minutes left. The steady nature of Gilman’s post play came out on top however, finding consistent points down low as the Hornets start- ed to come up empty from long range in the final stretch. The Pirates outscored Colby 16-4 over the game’s last five minutes and escaped with the 69-59 win.
Hernandez led the team with 14 points, Willner added 13 and Vanderhoof had 10. Trush, Dakota Hoeper and Harrison Schmitt all had six points and Kylie Orth added four.
48-40
The Hornets made the trip to Stratford to take on the Tigers on Monday evening. Shooting struggles in the first half put Colby behind early, and while they fought back in the second period, the Tigers claimed the 48-40 victory.
An early five points from Kylie Orth put the Hornets ahead in the opening minutes, but points quickly became hard to come by for the visitors. Stratford used the opportunity to score 13 unanswered, going up 17-5. A layup off an offensive rebound from Hayden Willner ended a seven-minute long scoring drought for the Hornets, but the problems on offense would continue. Two late baskets would help alleviate some of the damage, but Colby still found themselves down by 12 after one period of play, having only scored 13 points in the first half.
It seemed that perhaps the Hornets had broken out of their offensive funk, scoring seven points in the first three minutes of play of the second half. However, eight minutes elapsed off the game clock between Colby field goals, their only points coming from two free throws from Angelique Hernandez during the stretch. A three from Hernandez finally cut the streak of misses short, but Stratford had taken a 41-22 advantage before the basket.
A flurry of scoring propelled by steals and quick hitting offensive possessions in the last two minutes brought the Hornets back in a game that had looked out of hand for much of the second period. Willner found Hernandez on a backdoor to make it a two possession game at 46-40. Unfortunately, time was not on Colby’s side, the basket coming with only 15 seconds left in the game. Stratford was able to force the Hornets to foul, and after making the following free throws, the Tigers were able to put an end to Colby’s late comeback attempt.
Hernandez led the Hornets in scoring, putting up 15 points and going 6-for-8 from the free throw line. Willner added eight points, Orth and Hannah Trush had five each, Alexis Vanderhoof had four and Harrison Schmitt had three.
