Hidden Valley junior sharpshooter Drew Freeland entered Thursday night’s rivalry matchup against Cave Spring with 992 career points as a Titan.
Getting the last eight to reach 1,000 was an adventure.
Picking up her third personal foul early in the second quarter, Freeland went to the bench still needing the points she wasn’t even aware of.
“I had no idea,” Freeland laughed after the game of being on the cusp of 1,000 points. “No idea at all.”
She verified that point in the third quarter, when with two to go to get to the magic mark, she passed up shots or dished off to teammates in typical Freeland style, despite Hidden Valley in total control of the game.
Finally, with 4:29 left in the game, Freeland led a fast break before finishing with a layup that got her over the hump. The game was stopped to present her the ball.
As for the game itself, much like the earlier season matchup between the Southwest County rivals, the Lady Titans took control early and never looked back.
After a rugged start by both teams, Hidden Valley led 18-12 after one quarter. Despite Freeland off the court with foul trouble, the Titans outscored the Lady Knights 19-4 in the second frame to take a 37-16 lead to the halftime break.
“I knew my teammates could pick up the difference,” Freeland noted of her scoring absence. She finished with 13 points.
None better than the trio of Senia Garay, Hailey Singleton and Drew’s younger sister, Sawyer, who finished with 24, 19 and 10 points, respectfully.
Garay was back to form after missing Hidden Valley’s huge win over Floyd County in the Roy Stanley Memorial last Saturday due to a death in her family.
“Oh, yea, Senia made a big difference tonight,” Freeland said of her senior teammate. “She’s such an awesome passer and she does all the little things that count.”
Cave Spring was hoping for a repeat of last year’s regular season finale between the two teams that saw the Knights pull out a thrilling win in overtime.
“I’ll never forget that game,” Freeland admitted. “We knew what happened last year and a few of us talked about it. Tonight, we were ready.”
Any designs of a Cave Spring second half comeback were doused. The Titans held court in the third quarter to head to the final frame up 48-26.
Cave Spring senior Taylor White converted an old fashion 3-point play with 6:30 left to cut the Hidden Valley lead to 50-31, but the Titans went on a 19-4 run over the next five minutes to go up by 34. The Knights closed with a 5-3 burst to settle the final margin.
Junior Jessica Lachowicz had a team-high 15 points for Cave Spring, while White added 12 for the Knights.
The Knight defense held the Titans to only one basket from behind-the-arc, but the Hidden Valley transition game along with 17-of-25 free throw shooting proved to be the difference.
Bill Turner
