HOPE — The Chad Evans era for Hauser girls basketball began Tuesday night with a matchup against Columbus Christian.
It wasn’t as crisp as Evans would have wanted, but the Jets got the season started off on the right path as they went on to post a 51-36 victory.
"It was a tale of two halves, actually. The first half, we played pretty solid and did some things we wanted to do offensively," Evans said. "The second half, we kind of fell apart defensively, and offensively, we didn’t do what we were suppose to do. I was pretty happy with the overall performance. If I had to give it a grade, I would give it a C+."
Hauser attacked the basket in the first quarter, and that helped the Jets get off to an 8-0 start. Columbus Christian came right following a 3-pointer from Madison Henderson to cut it to 13-6. The Jets had a 15-8 lead after one quarter of play.
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The Jets got some bench production early in the second quarter. Gabby Johns and Hannah Taylor helped extend the lead to 22-8, and then Kyliegh Parrott hit a couple free throws to make it 24-8. Emma Patterson then stopped the bleeding with two free throws for the Crusaders, but they still trailed 24-10. Madison Henderson then scored five straight points for Columbus Christian to cut the halftime deficit to 28-15.
Hauser grew the lead up to 36-18 to start the second half, but Kayla Jones score four straight points to make it 36-22. The Crusader deficit would stay that with through the rest of the third quarter with the Jets leading 39-24.
Things got a little sloppy for both teams to start the fourth quarter, but the Crusaders eventually cut the lead to single digits for the first time since early in the second quarter following a Henderson basket to cut it to 41-32. Taylor then quickly slammed the door shut on a possible rally by draining a triple with around four minutes left to play. Columbus Christian didn’t have enough offensive fire down the stretch to try to attempt a comeback.
"Overall, I’m pleased with the girls. This was their first game of the season, so they were a bit nervous, and it got the best part of them in the first quarter," Columbus Christian coach Kay Jones said. "After that, within calling the timeouts and going into halftime, we talked about just calming down and running our plays. Our defense got much stronger throughout the game."
Parrott scored 12 points to lead Hauser, while Hannah Johnson added 10.
Henderson and Kayla Jones each scored 15 points to lead Columbus Christian.
"Defensively, our goal is to hold teams to under 40 points. They met their goal tonight," Evans said. "They gave up some points in the second half I wasn’t happy with, but that’s part of it. I’m not real happy, but it’s OK. For the first time out, I’d give them a C+, but we got a lot of work to do."
