By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor

HOOVER – The string of tough luck continued for the Lady Warriors of Thompson on Dec. 15 as they traveled to Hoover High School to take on the Lady Bucs in area play. After trailing by nine at the half, Thompson came back to grab the lead and took a slim, one-point advantage into the fourth before being outscored by 12 in the fourth quarter, as the Lady Bucs fell to 16-5 (1-3).

“We were 50 percent from the free throw line and two of 15 from three,” Thompson head coach Josh Golden said after the game. “Some of that is missing shots, some of that was what Hoover was doing. I thought in the third quarter we played really well, did a lot of good things offensively, then they obviously made an adjustment and we weren’t able to capitalize and hit shots, but a lot of that had to do with them.”

The Lady Warriors struggled to find any footing offensively early, as no one other than Kahyanne Bolton scored for the majority of the first quarter, and Thompson trailed 14-8 after the first period.

The second quarter was more of the same, as the Lady Warriors missed a number of close opportunities and multiple free throws. Jordan Lenoir scored four points in the second quarter, but also went 0-4 from the free throw line in the second quarter as Hoover opened up a 25-16 lead heading into the half.

Coming out of the half, Thompson found some rhythm offensively and was able to shut down the Lady Buc’s offense as Bolton and Indiah Cohill routinely found their way into the lane for easy buckets, and the two combined for 12 points in the third quarter to help the Lady Warriors take a 32-31 into the final period.

Whatever funk Hoover had momentarily fallen into in the third quarter, it snapped out of in a big way in the fourth as the Lady Bucs outscored Thompson 20-8 in the final period to get the 11-point win and extend their lead in the area.

“I thought it was a really good 7A basketball game, I thought the effort was really good,” Golden said. “We just have to keep working.”