Hickory High’s girls rebounded from a sluggish first quarter on Tuesday afternoon to defeat Fred T. Foard 75-52 in Northwestern 3A-4A basketball at Foard.
The win keeps the Red Tornadoes (17-1, 6-0) -- who have beaten the Tigers 14 straight times -- unbeaten in the conference and still atop the standings by one game over Alexander Central.
Foard fell to 9-8 overall and 2-4 in the league.
The Tigers’ defense gave Hickory problems in the first quarter, forcing 13 turnovers and capitalizing on several of those opportunities.
But despite Foard’s defensive effort, the Red Tornadoes still led 17-12 thanks to Yazmin Hannah, who scored nine points in the quarter and made all six of her free throw attempts.
“I thought we played pretty well in the early goings,” said Fred T. Foard head coach Brad Mangum. “Unfortunately for us, I think we started getting a little tired as the game progressed and they were able to pull away.”
Hickory led 39-23 by halftime, taking advantage of an 11-0 run near the end of the first half. That came after the Tigers had pulled within 26-21 on two free throws by Chelsea Turner.
“I thought we started a little slow and they could be attributed to the early games or even the pressure of thinking about exams,” said Hickory head coach Barbara Helms of a 5:30 p.m. game start. “I think after we got into the flow of things, we settled down and were able to get into what we wanted to do.”
Hickory continued to pull away in the third quarter as Hannah added six more of her game-high 24 points. Danesha Witherspoon scored seven of her 19 points in the quarter and Farrah Young tossed in five as Hickory increased its lead to 61-36.
Turner tried to rally the Tigers in the fourth quarter by scoring 11 of Foard’s 16 points in the quarter, but the closest Foard got was within 11 points.
Young had 11 points for Hickory and Aja Hoyle added 10 points.
Kayla Whitworth led the Tigers with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Turner added 13 points.
“We played pretty well as a team, especially in the second half,” Helms said. “Overall, I was pleased with our performance.”
HICKORY 84
FRED T. FOARD 66
Hickory’s boys shook off the pesky Tigers in the second half to run their win streak to 13 games and continue to lead the Northwestern 3A-4A.
Hickory (16-2, 6-0) clung to a 17-13 first quarter lead and saw Foard trim that lead to 38-36 by the half.
The Red Tornadoes began to pull away in the third quarter behind Jalen Byrd and Darius Melbon, and they led 61-48 through three quarters.
The fourth quarter saw C.J. Wardrick connect for seven of his 10 points to lead Hickory. The Red Tornadoes outscored the Tigers 23-18 in the final eight minutes.
Hickory, winning for the 12 th straight time over Foard, had five players in double figures. Zach Jarrett led the Red Tornadoes with 13 and Byrd had 12. Matt Mason added 11 and Jordan Walls-Davis and Wardrick added 10 each.
Foard (11-6, 1-5) got 20 points from Jordan Turner.
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