CARROLLTON - The Hardin-Calhoun Warriors girls’ basketball team were victorious over the West Central Lady Cougars Saturday evening at the Carrollton Lady Hawk Invitational. The Warriors earned third place in the tournament overall. 

With a heavy guard set on Grace Baalman, Sophie Lorton, Jordan Holland and Junie Zirkelbach came through in the first quarter to tie with West Central at 13. In the second, the Warriors began to trail their opponents, courtesy of Annika Kaufmann’s unwavering offense, resulting in a score of 31-24 West Central before the first half ended. 

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Grace Baalman broke away from the heavy defense set upon her by the Lady Cougars to shoot 10 points in the third quarter alone. In the same period, Emily Baalman, Holland and Emily McBride made key shots to bring the Warriors back over the top to lead 43-37 over West Central at the end of the third.

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“The girls did a good job fighting back,” Warriors coach Aaron Baalman said. “Coming out at half, we talked about establishing Grace [Baalman] and we did a good job at doing that and opening up our offense in the second half.

The match inched closer and closer heading into the final quarter as the Lady Cougars closed the gap to nearly tie the score within the last few moments at the game. At the final buzzer, the Warriors defeated West Central 58-57. 

Grace Baalman led the Warriors with 25 points. Jordan Holland scored 14 points. Junie Zirkelbach contributed 10 points from successful free throw shots alone.

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