‘Canes too strong for Lady Crusaders

The Harrells Christian Academy Lady Crusaders hosted the Cape Fear Academy Lady Hurricanes Tuesday night for basketball action, but it was the visiting team that came out on top, 60-19.

The Crusaders won the tipoff, as Riley Dixon got it to Breelyn Peed to start the game. A miscue landed the ball out of bounds and turned possession over to the Hurricanes. It was Cape Fear who scored the first points with over seven minutes to go in the opening quarter, and they quickly doubled up to make it 4-0 in their favor.

Cape Fear employed a full-court press to begin the game defensively, which gave the Crusaders fits every time they tried inbounding the ball. Possession heavily favored the Hurricanes early, but they only had the four points to show as Harrells did enough on defense to bother them shooting, and thus, they couldn’t get anything to fall.

Nearly two minutes passed before the Lady Crusaders moved the ball back into their front court, and Izzy Bradshaw made quick work of the possession to get their first score right about the five minute mark. Cape Fear bounced back on their next possession, and made it a 6-2 lead with over four minutes remaining in the first.

The smothering full-court defense for the Hurricanes continued, and after another two-point bucket, they forced another turnover by Harrells. A successful free throw on their end was added to the mix, and they quickly had the 9-2 lead. Harrells was already in foul trouble in the first quarter, putting Cape Fear in the bonus on their fourth foul and giving a 1-and-1 on every foul in the period thereafter.

The fouls weren’t one-sided, though, and the Hurricanes quickly found themselves in the same predicament — any further fouls would give the Crusaders a chance to grab two points.

Riley Dixon sank a free throw and brought the game to just a 10-point deficit at 13-3 with two minutes to go, but the Hurricanes sliced through their defense and dropped in another layup at the other end, extending it to 15-3. Harrells had yet to come up with a solution to defeat the pressing defense, and Kenzie Jackson picked up her third foul of the quarter on a layup after a steal.

Dixon came away with a breakaway steal with 44.7 seconds left, tossed it to Bradshaw, who tossed it to Mary Willow Rumbold. Rumbold was fouled on a layup attempt, but sank one of her two free throws as the first quarter was coming to a close. Cape Fear led 18-4 at this point. Dixon followed this up with two free throws of her own with under half a minute to play, cutting the lead down to 18-6. Cape Fear grabbed another point on a free throw, and took the 19-6 lead into the second quarter.

Ball control became an issue early in the second quarter for the Crusaders, as they still struggled breaking through the press. This wasn’t helped by two early fouls they picked up, either. With 6:30 on the clock for the opening half, the Hurricanes had jumped out to a 25-6 lead — meaning they were outscoring the hometown team 6-0 so far in the period.

Two points courtesy of a layup got Harrells on the board in the second period of action and cut the lead down, but with under a minute to play, the Hurricanes led 29-9. Both teams scored once more before they broke for the half for a 31-10 halftime score, with the Hurricanes still ahead.

Nine seconds into the third quarter, the Hurricanes got another layup to extend their lead out to 33-10, setting the tone for the second half of the game. Dixon came up with another steal on Cape Fear’s next possession, and got it down to an open Rumbold, who was fouled on the layup attempt. She sank both of her shots from the charity stripe, which made it a 33-12 game.

The Hurricane defense was unrelenting, still pressing the baseline in-bound passes after they scored. They pushed out to a 39-12 lead which they had with under 5:30 to go in the third. The gap widened to 32-12 late in the third as Cape Fear continued to disrupt any game plan the Lady Crusaders had.

Dixon banked in a free throw at the 3:32 mark to make it 44-13. Ella Campbell snagged a steal with 2:18 left in the period and Cape Fear committed their fifth team foul of the quarter as she embarked down court. She hit one of her free throws, and the lead was now 46-14 for the Hurricanes. Bradshaw added two more on a put-back of a missed shot, but Cape Fear had scored five more in the meantime, making it a 51-16 game. The quarter ended with a score of 54-17.

The pace of the game slowed down in the closing quarter, as the teams traded back-and-forth possessions. A successful free throw came the Crusaders’ way, and the Hurricanes grabbed six points of their own as the clock moved under two minutes.

Harrells scored just two more points before the final buzzer sounded, and it rang out with a final score of 60-19 in favor of the visiting Lady Hurricanes.

The Lady Crusaders fell to 1-7 with the loss and were set to travel to Wake Christian Academy on Friday.