Lady Falcons are Conference Tournament Champions
The Falcons came out and made a statement Friday, February 7th with a 79-44 victory over Salem Baptist to win the Tri-TAC Tournament Championship to match their Tri-TAC regular season championship. The victory closes out another undefeated conference season and seeing the Falcons go 40-0 in conference play dating back to 2017.
Win loss records aside, the Falcons on-court defensive pressure, rebounding and offensive execution made its own statement starting a running clock at the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Falcons jumped out to a 16-12 led in the first quarter, priming their defense and rebounding. In the second quarter, the Falcon offense exploding posting 31 points in the quarter off of 55% shooting from the field. Much of the offensive attack came behind the monster 40-point, 14 rebound, 5 steal night from Hadiya Balser. The mismatch nightmare, Balser posted up smaller guards throughout the evening showing off her finishing abilities around the rim.
Leading the Falcon offense, sophomore Caelan McHarney dictated tempo with keen precision dishing out 10 assists with zero turnovers to go with her 4 points and 6 rebounds on the night. Beneficiaries of the McHarney assists were Kayla Jenkins (12 points) and Aaliyah Balser (13 points, 16 rebounds) who both joined Hadiya Balser in double digits on the evening.
In their third match-up with #6 ranked Salem Baptist, the Falcons let their defense do the talking all evening long creating 12 steals and turned them into 26 points off of turnovers. “Our defensive pressure gets us going, but match that with the offensive execution we showed Friday night and we will be hard to beat,” reflected Coach Lulu Brase. “All year we’ve been preaching composure and togetherness, and Friday night our kids did both. It was a great night of basketball and we are so proud of these girls for their continued trust in the process!”
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