GRAVETTE -- Sophomores Morgan Vaughn and Hadlee Hollenback provided the spark the Siloam Springs girls basketball team needed in its season-opener on Thursday night.
Vaughn came off the bench and scored 19 points, including 11 in the second quarter, and Hollenback chipped in 17 points as Siloam Springs rolled in the second half to a 63-38 victory against Class 4A Gravette inside Lyon Gymnasium.
The Lady Panthers led the whole game, including an early 10-2 lead in the second quarter, but Gravette pulled within 16-14 after Lady Lions senior Kayla Kardynalski buried a 3-pointer at the top of the key.
That's when Vaughn came up big for the Lady Panthers.
Vaughn scored two straight layups off of Gravette turnovers and then hit a 3-pointer to give the Lady Panthers a 23-15 lead. She then scored inside for an 11-point lead and Hollenback's basket just before the halftime buzzer increased Siloam Springs' lead to 28-15 at halftime.
Siloam Springs head coach Tim Rippy liked what he saw out of his sophomore guard.
"She played with a lot of energy and got some deflections in the passing lane and stripped the guards sometimes," Rippy said. "That's the way she's capable of playing. I felt like the other night (in a benefit game) at Huntsville she didn't really show up. We need her to be able to do that, and I hope that's something she'll be able to do consistently."
Hollenback and senior Haley Stewart went to work on the inside in the second half.
The two opened the third quarter with back-to-back baskets as Siloam Springs' lead grew to 32-18.
"I thought they did a good job, Hollenback especially on the boards," Rippy said. "Stewart got to the free-throw line more in the second half. We made it a point at halftime to try to get her the ball more, because I felt like we were settling for too many jump shots. So we tried to get it to that mid to high post area, and she did a good job of drawing contact and getting to the free-throw line."
Senior point guard Abby Cox converted on a pair of layups and Stewart hit 6 of 8 free throws as the Lady Panthers' lead increased to 20.
Vaughn had three straight steal and scores, and Cox added another layup off a turnover as Siloam Springs led 48-25 going into the fourth quarter.
Hollenback scored six of her points in the fourth before exiting the game as Rippy emptied his bench and got every available player in the game.
Stewart added 11 points for the Lady Panthers (1-0) and Cox had nine.
"Well we played extremely hard," Rippy said. "It wasn't pretty necessarily. We didn't execute all the time. Our effort was tremendous and great. We had good energy. Everybody that came into the ballgame played extremely hard. That's kind of what we told them we wanted beforehand.
"We know that early in the year we're a team that's making some mistakes. A lot of our kids just need court time where they're not going to continually make those things. We just talked about having better practices over the next couple of weeks with that energy and effort so we can improve some of the things we're lacking at."
Kardynalski hit four 3-pointers and led Gravette (0-1) with 12 points. Senior Jaye Chalk added eight points for the Lady Lions.
The Lady Lions had a slow start on offense, going scoreless in the first period. However Gravette came alive in the second with a 14-9 run to pull within two points before unraveling.
"We cut it and played pretty good most of the second quarter," said Gravette coach Will Pittman. "Then we had four possessions where we didn't cross half court with the ball. We just made some bad decisions in the backcourt with the ball, tried to give it up too early.
The Lady Panthers don't play again until Dec. 3 against Fort Smith Southside in the opening round of the Great 8 Tournament at Rogers Heritage.
Siloam Springs 63, Gravette 38
Siloam Springs 7 21 20 15 -- 63
Gravette 0 15 10 13 -- 38
Siloam Springs (1-0): Vaughn 19, Hollenback 17, Stewart 11, Cox 9, Sharp 4, Loftis-Williams 2, Henry 1.
Gravette (0-1): Kardynalski 12, Chalk 8, Hicks 4, Branscum 4, Rose 3, Hubbard 2, Pinter 2, Walker 2, Garcia 1.
Sports on 11/22/2015