COVINGTON – The Arcanum Lady Trojans defeated the Houston Lady Wildcats 61-40 to win the sixth annual Buccaneers Holiday Classic tournament.
“It means a lot for our team to be in this setting and come away with a win,” said Arcanum coach, Abbey Moore. “Houston fought, they play hard and they didn’t give up. It’s good to have that experience.”
Houston grabbed an early 10-8 lead at the three-minute mark in the opening quarter before the Lady Trojans used an 8-2 run to lead 16-12 after one period on the inside play Arcanum sophomore Caroline Long’s 10 points.
“Caroline got us going and we were able to find her,” Moore stated. “Our guards did a great job of getting her the ball and she was able to finish. She’s a strong athletic kid and we have to take advantage of her when she’s on the floor.”
Second-quarter play belonged to Arcanum with the Lady Trojans taking advantage of a period opening 13-0 run to lead 29-12 at the 4:04 mark and pushed its advantage to 33-14 with 2:40 showing on the second quarter board before settling for a 39-18 lead with the teams heading to the break. Ashlyn Miller’s two 3-pointers and three Long baskets in the paint paced Arcanum with six points each.
“With this group, sometimes game to game it may take us a little bit to get into that flow,” Moore said. “I had full confidence in them, we hung with them. I feel like if we can hang tight with them in the first quarter, second quarter we’re going to start pouring it on and we were able to do that today.”
Coach Moore included her bench in third-quarter play with Arcanum outscoring the Lady Wildcats 11-7 to lead 50-25 with three quarters in the book. Miller’s third trey of the night and a basket led Arcanum with five points in the third.
Houston put 15 fourth-quarter points in the book while Arcanum continued to give valuable playing time to its bench with the Lady Trojans scoring 11 points for a 21-point non-conference holiday win.
Caroline Long led Arcanum and all players with a game-high 18 points of which 16 came in the first half of action.
Arcanum’s Caroline Long (sophomore), Alexis Gibbons (junior), and Brooke Anderson (junior) were named to the All-Tournament Team with Anderson named Tournament MVP. Houston’s Katie Maier (senior) and Emilee Earl (junior) were named first team and Covington’s Maggie Anderson (junior) was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM – C. Long 18, A. Miller 13, A. Gibbons 8, M. Noe 8, B. Anderson 7, R. Leeper 7 – TOTALS 18 13-20 4 61
HOUSTON – E. Earl 15, K. Maier 14, O. Burks 6, M. Vanderhuevel 3, L. Crim 2 – TOTALS 15 10-14 0 40
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 4 (A. Miller 3, A. Gibbons 1)
Houston 0
SCORE by QUARTERS
16-23-11-11 61 Arcanum
12-06-07-15 40 Houston
