By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

ALABASTER–The Thompson Lady Warriors used a strong second half performance to pull away from Helena and win 61-50 at home on Tuesday, Nov. 29.

Helena’s most productive quarter offensively came in the opening 8 minutes as the Lady Huskies got plenty of scoring from Jordan Jones, down low with Jen Brown and two three-pointers from Mary Elizabeth Laatsch to lead 19-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Thompson climbed back into the game in the second quarter going on runs offensively and the Lady Warriors trailed just 35-33 at the half.

The difference in the game came in the third quarter as Thompson held Helena to just two points as the Lady Warriors went on a 14-2 run to close out the quarter leading 47-37.

To open the fourth quarter, Helena climbed back into the game after a three-pointer by Laatsch, layup and made free throw by Brown and a breakaway layup by Jones to cut Thompson’s lead to 47-45.

However, the difference in the game came down to free throws as the Lady Warriors shot 70 percent from the line and Helena just 40 percent. This helped Thompson seal the 61-50 victory.

“I am really proud of how my girls competed tonight,” Helena head coach Alan Skinner said. “We executed the game plan really well. Our downfall, in my opinion came in two areas. Thompson went to the free throw line 10 more times than we did, which tells me that I didn’t do a good enough job preparing my girls for how aggressive they would be offensively, and two, They shot 70 percent from the line when they got there and we were 40 percent. In terms of where we are trying to be and the team we want to become, I think tonight’s performance showed me that we are making progress. My bunch played their tails off and did a better job in the shot selection department and we did a good job cutting down on our bad turnovers. We wanted to get the pace of the game up and when you do that turnovers are going to happen but I don’t think we had many bad turnovers, so that’s another positive.”

Brookyln Oden led Thompson with 20 points, and Niya Oden and Grice each scored 11 points in the game while Helena’s Jones finished with 20 points as the Huskies’ leading scorer.