Red Tornadoes in charge

Payne’s career-high lifts HHS past Foard

By: By Aaron Burns | Record Sports Correspondent
Published: January 14, 2010

HICKORY --

When a player has the hot hand, it's important to make sure she gets the ball, and Hickory High head girls' coach Barbara Helms knew it.

Led by Jada Payne's career-high 36 points, the Red Tornadoes ripped visiting Fred T. Foard 87-56 on Wednesday afternoon in a Northwestern 3A-4A basketball game.

"Jada's so smooth, I didn't even notice she had so many points," Helms said. "She's got wonderful vision and can see the court well, which makes it easier for the other four players out there."

Winning their 69th straight league game and running their home win streak to 81, the Red Tornadoes' win keeps them tied for first place.

Hickory (14-1, 4-0) and South Caldwell (13-1, 4-0) share the league lead. They were scheduled to meet Tuesday at Hickory but the game has been moved to Jan. 28 because of exams.

On Wednesday, Payne scored 16 points in the first quarter as the Red Tornadoes built a 20-9 lead six minutes into the game en route to a 30-12 first-quarter advantage.

Hickory's inside tandem of Andrea Miller and Hillary Sigmon used their height advantage to give the Tigers (8-8, 1-3)) trouble in the first half.

"The whole team had to stay focused, because our mindset is to pressure the ball from the start of the game no matter who we play," Helms said. "Hillary keys a lot for us, and so does Jada."

The Red Tornadoes built on the early momentum their scorers provided with a 48-29 halftime lead as they outscored the Tigers 24-9 in the third quarter.

Payne, who was held to two points in the second quarter, hit a running 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter. She also sank a 3-pointer with three seconds left to play to close out the game.

Although the Red Tornadoes rebounded from their first loss of the season in their last game, at Charlotte Christian, Helms said her team's performance was not perfect.

"We had some mental breakdowns, especially on defense, that gave them some easy opportunities to score," Helms said.

Carissa Young led the Tigers with 13 points, and led all scorers with nine free throws. Brooke Robinson added nine points for Fred T. Foard.

"We took this game seriously," Helms said, "because every conference game is important.
"Hopefully we can keep up this pace."

HICKORY 78, FRED T. FOARD 38

The Hickory boys ran out to a 20-12 first quarter lead and never looked back to remain unbeaten at 4-0 in Northwestern 3A-4A play.

Denzel Dillingham led the Red Tornadoes with 23 points, while Tyler Poole added 12.

Hickory improves to 13-2 overall.

Foard falls to 2-13 and 0-4.