Hawks hand Providence loss

The Daleville boys basketball team outran Providence Jan. 27 for a 74-45 victory.

"I think they had a little bit different attitude coming out," DHS boys basketball coach Blake Garner said. "I played a lot of people."

The Warhawks had a 22-11 lead after the first quarter, and outscored Providence 19-17 in the second.

Daleville led 41-28 at the half.

"We didn't play defense the first half, not as well as we could have," Garner said. "We gave up the baseline a few times, and they got some offensive rebounds on us."

 The defense tightened in the second half.

The Hawks added 23 points to Providence's 10 in the third quarter for a 64-38 lead when the fourth began.

"(We were) mostly getting out on the break," Garner said. "We were a little stagnant moving the ball in the first group. The second group and the bench moved the ball really well. They just didn't score a lot of points. We did get out and run."

Daleville scored 10 points to the Eagles' seven in the last quarter for the win.

Kainan Pouncy led the Hawks with 18 points, and Shemar Dixon followed with 14.

Acazio Coleman scored nine, Jerry White had eight and T. J. Tanner scored six. Riley Remple and Teco Hodge each scored five.

The Hawks finished their Class 3A, Area 4 schedule with the win, which Garner said was important.

"You want to win," he said. "You want to win all of them. Since I've been back coaching basketball here, we've only lost three area games in six years. It means a lot because it's going to be the winner of (Providence) and Wicksburg we'll play in the first round of the area tournament."

Lady Hawks lose

Providence used success from behind the arc to pull away from the Lady Hawks on its way to a 56-35 victory, and will host the girls area tournament.

"We looked just dead," DHS girls basketball coach Zach Kelley said. "I don't know if they were mentally and physically fatigued or what. We just didn't play very (well)."

Daleville led 14-11 after the first quarter, but the Lady Eagles took a 28-20 advantage into the halftime locker room.

"We had a good first quarter and we played all right in the second quarter, but we missed a lot of opportunities around the basket," Kelley said. "They kind of took advantage."

Daleville cut the lead to a slim margin early in the third quarter, but Kelley said the Lady Hawks missed opportunities.

"We were only down by eight at halftime," Kelley said. "We came out and scored the first play of the half to cut it to six. We got the ball back down low two or three times and couldn't convert. We went down, got a stop on defense, came back down, got fouled and missed both free throws. We had plenty of chances to come back."

The Lady Hawks added just eight points in the third quarter while Providence scored 20 to take a 48-28 lead into the final frame.

The Lady Eagles made six shots from behind the 3-point line.

"They hit a lot of 3s," Kelley said. "One girl was on fire. For some reason, we just couldn't stop her."

Fatigue forced Kelley to abandon the Lady Hawks' press and Providence found success on offense.

"I started out pressing," he said. "We were successful a little bit, but then we got tired so I had to fall out of it. They started hitting a lot of 3s, and it just kind of put us behind the eight ball."

Kiarra Pouncy led Daleville with 10 points, and Kenyetta Stephens had eight. Raiven Hallford added seven.

Providence will host the area tournament, and the Lady Hawks will start tournament play Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. against Houston Academy.