Worth County's junior high girls won its third game, downing North Harrison 42-15 as Jill Hardy and Anna Gladstone each had 12 in the Tiger victory. After nine years of futility from the girls program, some folks found it hard to believe that a girls team was doing well, but this bunch is on a mission to change that; after dropping only two games last year, they avenged one of their losses and then picked up their third victory Monday night.
The Shamrocks came into the game with three freshmen playing on their roster (HDC teams generally have some freshmen playing on their junior high squads), which was a potential challenge for the Tigers. But they made quick work of the Shamrock squad. Anna Gladstone came out on fire, scoring off a pass from Regan Allee and drive down the right side, then drained a 3-pointer after Merrideth Spiers got a steal, threw it to Kristin New, and her kickout to Anna got Worth County up 5-0. Kristin New and Anna Gladstone then hooked up again as Kristin hit Anna cutting inside to put the team up 7-0.
Anna Gladstone continued to play on a mission; she hustled to the opposite side to grab a missed free throw by Kaylee McElvain and kicked it out to Regan Allee for a 3-pointer. Regan missed, but Kaylee was there for the board. But just as it looked like she would have a big night, she crashed hard into the padding at Eagleville after a hard foul by two of the Shamrock players. She recovered enough to hit one out of two free throws, but she hurt her hamstring and had to come out, as she was in obvious pain.
Besides a made shot from Jill Hardy, the team struggled during the next stretch as they needed a few minutes to adjust with Gladstone on the bench. But then at the start of the second quarter, they adjusted as though nothing had happened. Regan Allee scored on a couple of backdoor looks from Kristin New and Merrideth Spiers and Worth County was clicking again, up 16-0 at that point.
That was when Jill Hardy started to take over the game. Normally a role player in her first two games, she stepped up her scoring with Anna Gladstone on the bench, breaking out a drive, 15-foot pullup, and lightning quick release that is really hard to block because of her size. She had six points by halftime; New added a backdoor cut and took a pass from Megan Cassavaugh for a layup while Jill Hardy got a steal, passed it to Kristin New, who threw it to Merrideth Spiers for the finish to put Worth County up 24-2 at the break. New got five of her six assists in the first half.
Coach Josh Smith took the press off, but Worth County continued to pull away slowly in the third period. Kristin New got a steal and went up strong and got on the line for a pair of free throws; she added a driving layup to get herself to six points for the night. Megan Cassavaugh hit Merrideth Spiers inside while Jill Hardy scored another one of her patented pullups to put Worth County up 32-8 after three. The Shamrocks countered with the strong play of Emma Craig; the seventh grader was a bright spot with 10 of her team's 15 points, all in the second half.
Anna Gladstone, who spent the previous two quarters icing and stretching herself, successfully lobbied Smith to put her back in, and she showed everyone she was back by draining an NBA 3-pointer right off the bat off a pass from Kristin New; she later mixed it up and got an offensive board and converted it into a free throw. Jill Hardy added another one of her pullups, while Kristin New hit a pair of free throws to get to a season-high eight points.
Anna Gladstone co-led the scoring with 12 points despite only playing around eight minutes; Jill Hardy also had 12. Kristin New had 8, Regan Allee and Merrideth Spiers each had 4, and Kaylee McElvain had 2. Kristin New had 6 assists, Regan Allee 3, and Merrideth Spiers and Megan Cassavaugh had 2 each.
Nevada Hoff's 3-pointer in the closing seconds gave the B team a 9-9 tie.
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