Women's Basketball closes out regular season on high note

The Hocking College women's basketball team has become an amazing story this season and last night in Fremont, Ohio, the Hawks were rewarded for their hard work, togetherness, and perseverance as the Blue and Gold punched their ticket to the Great Lakes Region 12 Tournament with a 77-53 win over OCCAC rival Terra State Community College.

Hocking, which started the season with just six players, then got down to five and had to postpone some games, and eventually got to eight healthy players at the semester break - only to see sophomore center Na'Shala McDonald go down with a knee injury a couple of weeks ago, but with seven young ladies these last few games, including only six for last night's game as leading scorer freshman Brie Gingras was out, the Hawks stayed strong and will now head to Flint, Michigan next week for the Region 12 Tournament.

The Hawks came out red hot and left little doubt that they were on a mission, blitzing Terra State with six 3-pointers in the first quarter en route to a 29-11 and the Hawks never looked back. Hocking would lead 43-23 at halftime and cruised to the road win.

Sophomore guard Tayen Brown, coming off her toughest game of the year at Lakeland last Saturday, scored a game-high 21 points to lead four Hawks in double figures, Brown outscored Terra State by herself in the first quarter 14-12 as Brown set the tone with four 3-pointers in the opening period.

The Hawks also got season-best performances from freshman forward Trinity Bellard, who scored a career-high 18 points, and sophomore center Kortnee Smith's career-best 16. Freshman guard Cayleigh Dupler hit double digits again for the Hawks as she tallied 12 points. For the game, Hocking connected on a season-best 10 treys as Brown had five and Dupler added four. Dasani Morrow chipped in seven points, including a 3-pointer.

"Going into the game, we knew we had to win to qualify for the Region Tournament, and even without our leading scorer (Brie Gingras), I could not be more happy the way the girls executed the game plan", said Hocking first year head coach Seth Martin. "We shot the ball well and moved the ball around, and got it inside to Trinity and Kortnee. Nobody expected us to win many games, but these girls exeeded expectations, and I am so proud of how they came together and played as a family, and as a team."

Hocking is now 12-5 and finished OCCAC play at 7-4. The Hawks seed for next week's Region Tournament will be determined Saturday night. It's fitting that Coach Martin finished his comments with the slogan that he brougt to Hocking when he took the job last August - "They were truly BETTER TOGETHER."