Lady Knights finish third at Columbia

By Editor | November 24, 2024 |

By Anthony Jones

The first week of the season is in the books for Triad girls basketball.

The Lady Knights, who opened their season at the Columbia Tip-off Classic, closed out tournament play on Nov. 23. In their final action of the tournament, they faced Father McGivney in the third place contest.

Offense came at a premium in the first half of their matchup, resulting in a 16-11 edge for the Lady Knights. Triad’s Savannah Hildebrand led all scorers at the break with six points.

“We could not have played worse. We had eight turnovers and we were in foul trouble. I just told the girls that the great news is we’re still ahead five and we can’t play worse,” Coach Josh Hunt recalled the opening team that his squad mustered just five field goals across.

The tide began to turn in the second half, as the Lady Knights found better offensive footing with 15 points in the third quarter. Delaney Hess provided 10 of those tallies to push Triad ahead 31-23.

A 23-5 edge in the fourth quarter for the Lady Knights sealed a 54-28 victory. The win pushed the squad’s record to 2-1 on the season.

“I was really proud of the girls, especially Delaney Hess. I challenged her yesterday because on Thursday, she had one stat. Today she had 16 points and 11 rebounds,” Coach Hunt remarked of the game’s leading scorer and the rest of his unit.

Hildebrand added 14 points and Erica Boyce tacked on 10 in the third-place clincher.

Two days prior, Triad fell 56-35 to Carlyle in the semifinal round. The Indians went on to win the tournament with a 63-60 victory over Columbia.

Triad’s manager said of the defeat, “Carlyle returns all but one player from a 28-3 team and that was a great test for us. It helped us realize some of our deficiencies right now and what we need to work on, so it was a good barometer as far as where we’re at.”

With 12 points, Boyce led the Lady Knight offense in the setback. Makenna Witham also reached double digits with 11 points.

Triad’s first game of the season and of the Columbia tournament came on Nov. 19. The Lady Knights dismantled Marquette Catholic 57-27 in their opener.

With 13 points each, Hildebrand and Witham tied for the team lead in Triad’s victory over the Explorers.

Both Hildebrand and Witham were named to the All-Tournament team. Both of the seniors eclipsed 30 points across the tournament’s three games.

The senior duo are part of an experienced group that Coach Hunt is glad to have, “We’ve got 11 upperclassmen, so we’re finally old and that’s a good thing. We’re not teaching brand new things this year. We went through a year where we had two seniors and one junior and then last year we just had one senior. That’s hard, especially with the schedule we play, but we’re finally old. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to make mistakes but I think our growing pains that we’ve gone through the last few years will be beneficial for us this year.”