Lady Hawks fall to Cottonwood in area tournament

The Daleville Lady Hawks’ 2020 season came to a close on Tuesday, Feb. 4, with a 47-44 loss to the Cottonwood Lady Bears in the opening round of the Class 2A, Area 3 Tournament.

The loss means that the Lady Hawks will not advance to the state tournament for the first time since 2011.

After a sluggish start for both teams, Daleville and Cottonwood went into the second quarter tied 4-4. It was the lowest scoring period of the season for the Lady Hawks.

Both sides picked it up in the second quarter and Daleville head a 19-17 lead with 55 seconds left in the half before Cottonwood knocked down a pair of free throws to knot the score up 19-19. The score would stay the same headed into halftime.

The third quarter, however, was all Cottonwood as the Lady Bears held Daleville scoreless and jumped ahead 34-19 going into the final period.

The Lady Hawks got back into the game in the fourth quarter and went on a 13-2 run to cut the lead to 36-32 with 4:22 remaining.

After a layup and free throw, Cottonwood went up 39-32 and then Daleville’s Janee Clements buried a three-pointer to cut the lead to 39-35 with 2:53 remaining.

After a Cottonwood free throw, Daleville’s Erika Herring drilled her own three-pointer to cut the lead further down to 40-38 with 2:00 remaining.

Cottonwood hit a pair of free throws and Herring answered with a layup to cut the lead to 42-40.

With under a minute remaining Cottonwood knocked down a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 44-40. Cottonwood knocked down two more free throws to extend the lead to 46-40 followed by a Herring layup to cut the lead to 46-42.

Herring knocked down another layup with 1.3 seconds remaining to cut the lead to 46-44. Daleville immediately fouled a Lady Bear and after making the first free throw, the second was missed only for time to expire before Anderson could get off a last-second Hail Mary attempt as Cottonwood picked up the 47-44 win.

Daleville struggled from the field all night – converting just 10-of-31 shot attempts – and the frustrating third quarter will likely haunt Daleville in the offseason. Daleville went 0-fo-9 in the third quarter and were outrebounded 15-7.

Herring led Daleville with 26 points, while Clements added 17 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

Anderson was the only other Lady Hawk to score – with one point – and she also grabbed seven rebounds and dished seven assists.