Hobbton’s varsity girls are now tied for third place with Trask in the Tri-County Conference standings after defeating the Titan girls earlier this week 53-38.

The Lady ‘Cats have a tough road ahead of them, though, as the regular season winds down, first facing Lakewood’s No. 1 ranked Leopards Friday night.

“That will be a tall order,” said Hobbton coach Alfonso Hooper about the home game against Lakewood Friday. “But we’ll be ready.”

Before getting to the game with Lakewood, Hobbton had to take on Trask in a road game Tuesday night, facing the same team they’d lost to by 5 points earlier in the season.

It looked as though it might be a repeat performance on Tuesday, with Hobbton’s girls coming out sluggish against the Lady Titans. Although Hobbton led 9-7 at the end of the first quarter, they were down 22-18 at the half and up by only 4 at the end of the third period, 35-31.

“I didn’t really come at them with a game plan for the second half,” Hooper said Thursday, “I just ask the girls how bad they wanted to win the game. They showed me.

Playing better defense and taking a more aggressive approach to taking the ball to the basket, Hobbton’s girls were able to outscore the Titans in the fourth and give them a sound thumping by the period’s end.

“I was pleased with the way the girls played defense. It was better in the second half. Our rebounding was also good, and probably most importantly, we were able to lock down their best player, CeeCee Murphy, and keep her from scoring so many points.”

The combination was exactly what Hobbton needed to get the win.

“We turned it around, and I’m pleased with the win,” Hooper said.

Sasha Martin led scoring with 21 points and racked up her 1,000th point of her career. She also had 10 assists in the game. Casey Hobbs had a double-double, with 13 points and 15 rebounds; and Michaela Wilson had 13 points and 8 steals.