Houston Lady Tigers coach Brent Kell prefers man-to-man defense. But his team has been playing its best lately in a zone.
Trailing early, Kell made the defensive switch to the zone and it sparked a 13-0 spurt that led to the Lady Tigers’ 48-32 victory Monday night against Liberty.
“I’m not a great zone believer, but at times you have to play it,” Kell said. “Some teams play zone better than man-to-man. I think maybe this team does.
Holly Thomas scored 16 points and Kendra Welch added 10 for Houston (9-9, 3-1 SCA). Sarah Pierce and Erica Keeney had six points each for the Lady Tigers, who led 30-15 at the half.
With Houston trailing 10-9 early in the first quarter, Welch hit her second triple to ignite the Lady Tigers’ rally. Thomas had eight points during the spurt, which ended with Welch’s jumper that made it 22-10.
The rally included several easy transition looks following turnovers from the Lady Tigers’ zone.
“Our zone is pretty good. I wanted to play man and pressure guards, but we weren’t able to keep them in front of us,” Kell said.
JUNIOR VARSITY: Kelsi Adey scored nine points and Elizabeth Hayes had eight as the JV Lady Tigers held off Liberty 35-33 Monday night.
Danielle Pounds and Tory Burgess scored five each for Houston. Adey, Pounds, Burgess and Jessica Herndon all hit 3-pointers for the Lady Tigers.
Box scores
VARSITY
Liberty 10 5 4 13 – 32
Houston16 14 8 10 – 48
LIBERTY -Goff 2 0-0 6. Walkup 0 0-2 0. Renegar 3 0-0 6. Noble 2 0-0 4. Riddle 2 6-8 10. Smith 1 0-0 3. Hopkins 0 0-1 0. Layman 1 1-4 3. Totals 10 7-15 32.
HOUSTON – Moore 1 0-0 3. Pounds 2 0-0 5. Welch 4 0-0 10. MKell 1 0-0 2. Thomas 8 0-1 16. Pierce 2 2-4 6. Keeney 3 0-0 6. Totals 21 2-5 48.
3-pointers: Liberty 2 (Goff 2); Houston 4 (Welch 2, Moore, Pounds).
JUNIOR VARSITY
Liberty 5 6 7 15 – 33
Houston 9 13 3 10 – 35
HOUSTON – Moore 0 0-2 0. Pounds 2 0-0 5. Neal 1 0-0 2. Burgess 1 2-2 5. Adey 2 4-6 9. HKell 1 1-1 3. Herndon 1 0-1 3. Hayes 4 0-0 8. Totals 12 7-12 35.
3-pointers: 4 (Pounds, Burgess, Adey, Herndon).