By Rick Teverbaugh, Herald Bulletin Sports Editor
PENDLETON — Often a good indicator of a team’s strength is the number of its weapons.
That turned out to be the key factor for the Pendleton Heights girls basketball team here Saturday in a 61-28 victory over Frankton.
The Eagles wanted to take away the Arabians’ top two threats, Mur Hagerman and Hannah Douglas, or at least try to limit their effectiveness.
“I didn’t want Mur or Hannah to beat us. I wanted it to be their role players,” said Frankton coach Stephon Hamaker. But with a wry smile, he added, “Their role players are pretty good.”
So while Hagerman hit only 20 percent of her shots and finished with 13 points, Douglas scored the same amount without seeing the floor for much of the final quarter.
But freshman Kenzie Gustin scored 14 points and Jamie Hubble added 12, all from 3-point range.
“We wanted them to just take high percentage shots,” said Hamaker. “But for them I guess those 3-pointers are high percentage.” PH hit 8-of-18 from beyond the arc as a team and Hubble hit four in a row after missing her first two.
“We wanted to work on being a lot more patient on offense,” said PH coach Shari Doud. “We were shooting too many 3’s as entry shots. If we rotate it around a couple of times and that’s still our best shot, then we can shoot it. I think every time Jamie shoots, it’s going to go in. She has a very green light in our offense.”
Hubble wasn’t discouraged by a couple of early misses. “You just have to let the other ones go,” she said. “Most of the shots I shoot I feel like they are going to go in. When the ball is kicked out it gives me more of a chance to set my feet.”
Hubble would have scored even more if she hadn’t been saddled with foul trouble. “I have to learn to move my feet more,” said Hubble. “It’s a little bit frustrating to have to sit when I’m shooting well.”
The Arabians took very good care of the basketball with just eight turnovers compared to 23 for the Eagles.
For the Eagles, senior Mollie Hamilton hit 3-of-5 shots from the field in the first half, all from long range. She also hit two free throws for 11 points at intermission. She didn’t attempt a shot in the second half.
“We used the name of Mollie Hamilton a lot in practice,” said Doud. “We have a lot of respect for her. We wanted to know where she was all of the time.”
The rest of the Frankton team scored 17 points topped by Bre Shively with nine points.
Frankton drops to 2-1 with the loss and travels to Tipton on Tuesday.
The Arabians are 2-2 and wait a week before playing next Saturday at Shelbyville.
