Inspired Springville girls beat Moody for area championship

By Johnny Sanders Sports Editor

MOODY – On Thursday night, the Moody Lady Blue Devils hosted the 5A Area 11 championship game against the rival Springville Lady Tigers in a game that saw all of the excitement of a rivalry game with an area title on the line. Both teams came out swinging like heavyweight boxers in the first quarter of the game defensively. Springville would manage just 11 points for the period and Moody would score one less with 10. Leading the way for Springville would be Farrah Hawkins, who had 7 of the 11 points herself. For Moody, Tori Pyles would hit a pair of three-pointers to lead the Blue Devils with 6 points in the first quarter. The second was much of the same as the teams would tie for quarter with 12 points each. Pyles would be held scoreless for Moody, but teammates Ryleigh Hodges (7 points) and Serenity Rutledge the charity stripe a couple of times, despite her own foul trouble in the game, and help out her team with 5 points while Hunter added the other 4 of Hewitt’s points, all from the foul line as well.

Jordan Hunter ended the night with 19 points for the Huskies to go with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals and a blocked shot. Sara Phillips would add 10 points with 4 rebounds and 1 assist.

“The last 10 days, we’ve had so many girls step up and execute what we are trying to do. They are doing a heck of a job executing. We are so much better defensively than we were even 6 days ago,” said Hewitt coach Tonya Hunter. “Every opportunity we get, we look to get better. We are going to work more on defensive assignments that we need to take care of and move the ball a little bit better.”

On the area championship, Coach Hunter said, “This is so great. We haven’t won one since 2018 and for these Seniors, it is fantastic to get that.”