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  Moving into the No. 7 slot in last week’s TD-Poll, Hanover showed they had no intentions of making an early exit when they hosted cross-county rival Lee-Davis on Friday night. Against the young, short-handed Confederates, Hanover made its first five shots from the floor to jump out to an 11-0 lead two minutes into the contest. The Hawks’ then ran away 78-33 to move to 6-2 in Capital District play.

  Hanover head coach Kevin Brooks was concerned with how his team would play after an extended layoff. “We hadn’t played since last Wednesday, so exam week makes practice a little difficult,” he said. “Our game plan going in was to play the way we should, play Hanover basketball and really that’s what we tried to do from the very start.”

  While seniors Chelsea Coward (18 points, 12 boards, four blocks) and Kim Browning (10 points, 10 rebounds) both notched double-doubles in the win, it was freshman Mariah Douglas who led the Hawks in scoring with 21 points.

  However, instead of scoring, Douglas concentrated on the other end of play. “I’m mainly working on defense in practice,” she said. “The coaches get on me a lot about defense.”

  Brooks was glad to see his young post player turn in a highly productive game. “She’s coming around,” he said of Douglas. “She’s starting to get it. She’s starting to understand she’s got to play hard the entire time she’s out there and if she needs a sub we’ll get one for her. But she did a really good job tonight playing more extensive minutes than she’s used to.”

  As far as intensity, Lee-Davis matched Hanover’s aggressiveness with an equal effort however against the Hawk defense, the C-feds did not hit offensive pay-dirt until the 5:31 mark of the first quarter when Chandler Thomas (8 points) drilled a three from the top of the key to put Lee-Davis on the board.

  Hanover’s Coward widened the margin back to 10 off an assist from Amanda Woolard (9 points) but the C-feds Logan Bryan (10 points) answered with a short jumper at the 4:31 mark to bring the Lee-Davis within eight at 13-5.

  The Hanover defense then stiffened and Lee-Davis drew no closer over the remainder of the game. Following Bryan’s jumper, the Confederates only scored on one field goal over the next two-and-a-half quarters and only made three baskets over the remainder of the game.

  With :40.2 seconds left in the first, Thomas hit her second three of the contest to trim the Hawks’ lead to 18-8. The Confederates then did not score another field goal until :38 seconds remained in the third period.

  Hanover entered the second quarter with a 24-8 lead and Brooks substituted all of his starters for the remainder of the half, getting the bench substantial minutes early in the game. “That’s part of what we’re trying to do,” Brooks said. “We’re experienced but we’re also young at some spots. We have four freshmen playing varsity and they’re all getting playing time. We need them to play. We want them to play. We need them to be good players.”

  The Hawks’ bench continued to keep Lee-Davis from the basket however, their aggressiveness on defense began raking up fouls, fouls and more fouls. In the second quarter, Hanover picked up more fouls (11) then Lee-Davis scored points (8).

  “I think we just got too excited,” Douglas said.

  To add insult to injury, the Confederates failed to capitalize on trips to the free throw line. In the period, Lee-Davis went 8-18 from the charity stripe sending Hanover to take a 43-16 into the locker room.

  With the Hawks’ starters back on the floor to start the third, Lee-Davis was even less successful in scoring, getting their first point when Raven Sims hit one-of-two free throws with 2:51 left in the period.

  But despite the sluggishness of the Confederates’ offense, there was no slowing down on the Hanover fouls. By the end of the third, and holding a 64-22 edge, the Hawks had added six more to their foul tally with Coward, Wendy Jordan and Alyshea Webb in trouble with three each.

  In the final period, the Hanover bench returned to action and were whistled for six more fouls bringing the Hawks grand total to 24 in the game. By the end of the contest, both Jordan and Webb had fouled out while Emily Cox and Tyler Brace were saddled with four fouls.

  “I think one of the things when you get in and you’re really excited, fouls compound fouls,” Brooks said. “We had three freshmen on the floor at the same time. We want to be aggressive but we want to play without fouling. That’s one of the things that we talked about at halftime, playing without fouling. Then we came out in the third quarter and all we did was foul.”

  For Lee-Davis, the free throw woes continued, going 8-of-15 in the second half.  “I feel bad for Lee-Davis,” Brooks said. “They’ve got a couple of injuries, a couple of people out.”

  With the win, Douglas feels good about where her Hawks are at. “We’re doing a lot better,” she said. “We’re getting a lot better. We’re just looking forward to our two big games (Highland Springs and Atlee). “We’re going to keep pushing ourselves hard in practice.”

  Hanover plays Patrick Henry on Thursday night before hosting No. 5 Atlee in a Capital District showdown game on Friday.
 
LEE-DAVIS (1-6 Capital, 1-12) Barrier 0, Thomas 8, Bryan 10, Puller 3, Sims 3, T. Gardner 6, K. Gardner 3. Totals 7 16-32 33.
HANOVER (6-2, 10-4) Dillich 1, Throckmorton 5, Coward 18, Hill 2, Douglas 21, Jordan 2, A. Woolard 9, Browning 10, Brace 0, Webb 5, Cox 5. Totals 30 13-19 78.
Lee-Davis…............. 8   8   6 11 — 33
Hanover….............. 23 20 21 14 — 78
3-point goals: LD — Thomas 2, T. Gardner. H —Woolard 2, Cox, Throckmorton, Browning.