Lady Trojans beat Clopton in district semifinals

Posted 2/25/22

Earning a first-round bye in this week’s district tournament, the No. 1 Lady Trojans, faced the Clopton Hawks Tuesday night in Sturgeon. 

They defeated the Hawks 53-35, rallying after …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Lady Trojans beat Clopton in district semifinals

Posted

Earning a first-round bye in this week’s district tournament, the No. 1 Lady Trojans, faced the Clopton Hawks Tuesday night in Sturgeon. 

They defeated the Hawks 53-35, rallying after an early Clopton lead.

Clopton led 13-11 after the first quarter, but the Lady Trojans answered, entering the half with a 20-18 lead. The second half was all Community, as they outscored Clopton 15-5 in the third and 18-13 in the fourth.

Leading the Lady Trojans was Sarah Angel, who had 18 points and 3 steals; Alexis Welch had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Other team leaders were Shelby Clark, 9 points; Olivia Kuda, 6; Kayla Jett , 3; Brynna Beamer, 3; and Paige Meyer, 2.

Entering the Class 2 District 5 Tournament as its top eed, the Lady Trojans faced a Clopton team that had steamrolled Van-Far in the opening round.

“Clopton came out on fire,” Curtis said. “They may have been the hottest team on Saturday putting up 74 points versus a solid Van-Far team,” 

Foul trouble and an injury diving for a loose ball had Community playing without two starters for much of the first half, but they kept fighting through adversity.

“The fight in our kids is fun to watch,” Curtis said. “They worked so hard for this victory.  They overcame so much in this contest as a team to break the Lady Hawk pressure and played great as a unit defensively.”

Angel turned in a key performance.

“Sarah had a great game,” said Curtis. 

Not only did she score a team-high 18 points, but she forced several turnovers, converting them to points.

Welch was equally dominant.

“Alexis was a beast on the boards,” Curtis said.  

And Kuda played tough; tough enough to earn a set of stitches.

“Olivia dove for a loose ball and showed that toughness and want-to-win that probably changed the game,” Curtis said.”During a timeout I challenged our players to want it as much as she does as the trainer told us she would probably need stitches.”

She got five stitches in her chin.

“Shelby Clark was huge handling the ball and scoring nine points in the win,” Curtis added. “She probably had her best game of the season at just the right time.”

Brynna Beamer, Kayla Jett, Brooklyn Glasgow, and Paige Meyer came up big handling the full court pressure without turning it over giving them easy layups.  

WIth the win, the Lady Trojans carried a 23-3 record into Friday night’s championship game against No. 2 seed - and conference rival - Cairo (results weren’t available at press time).

Look to the Wednesday Ledger for more district highlights. 


X