Ardmore’s hot shooting too much for West Limestone

Published 5:50 pm Tuesday, January 23, 2018

When Ardmore played West Limestone earlier in the season, the Tigers had to overcome a late deficit to sweat out a 46-44 victory on the road. But when the two teams met again in the Limestone County Tournament’s first round game Monday night, a terrific shooting performance by Ardmore made sure the game would not be nearly as close.

Ardmore hit nine 3-pointers as a team to pull away from West Limestone and cruise to a 58-48 victory.

“We did shoot the ball well and made some big shots when it counted, and we needed that boost,” Ardmore coach Brittney Smith said. “That really helped us.”

The No. 4 seed Tigers trailed 9-4 early but went on a 10-0 run to take a 14-9 lead over the fifth-seeded Wildcats after the first quarter and never trailed again.

Ardmore took a 30-22 lead into halftime and then outscored West Limestone 15-8 in the third quarter to take its largest lead of 15 points.

Ardmore lost a little bit of focus to begin the third quarter and went scoreless for the first three minutes, allowing West Limestone to cut the lead to 10 points. But 3-pointers from Madison Lewis and Maddie Hodges expanded the lead again, and Ardmore was never threatened down the stretch.

“Those late 3-pointers were really big for us,” Smith said. “They stopped their momentum and kept us out in front.”

The stark difference in Ardmore’s two games against West Limestone wasn’t lost on Smith.

“When we played at West, they led us the entire game,” she said. “It wasn’t until right at the end when we came back and won. Over the year, we’ve definitely made improvements. We’re playing pretty well right now.”

Lewis led all scorers with 22 points, while Hodges scored 13 and Chesney Widner added 11.

Smith was pleased with the performance of Widner, who controlled the offense from the point guard position in addition to her 11 points.

“She handles the offense well, makes good passes and makes some shots when we need her to,” Smith said. “She had a great game tonight.”

West Limestone was led by Cassidy Winter with 21 points and Savannah McConnell with 14.

Ardmore advances to play top seed East Limestone in the tournament semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.