Hauser girls fall to Jac-Cen-Del

As many in a large crowd representing Hauser, I had hopes Hauser could pull an upset over Jac-Cen -Del, a highly thought of program and a ranked team at #5 with four seniors.

For years, I have watched the Jets try hard when going against the Eagles only to be defeated. It would be the same for the 2022 Sectional 60 at Waldron.

In the very beginning of the game, it was close, and there was hope that this might be the year; however, the hope faded away with Jac-Cen-Del's full-court trapping press causing turnovers and leading to easy baskets. When forced to run their offense against our zone, they seemingly could not miss from the inside, outside, or free throw line. At the end of the first quarter, we were losing 10-28 despite two timeouts by Coach Evans to try to find a way for the Jets to break the momentum of the Eagles. By halftime though, the spread was even more at 20-45 even though Coach Smith did call a timeout for the Eagles when the Jets seem to be making a comeback at 16-32.

The second half started with an injury to our second leading scorer, Kyleigh Parrott, extremely disappointing and upsetting for Kyleigh and the team. (Hopefully, Kyleigh will quickly recover.) Coach Smith chose to not use the full-court press in the second half, but the Eagles worked the ball around the outside while often delivering it to the low post resulting in points. The third quarter ended at 30-58, and the final score was 40-75.

The Lady Jets had some nice shooting from the outside and inside definitely indicating a bright future ahead while losing one senior, Gabrielle Johns, Gabby. With just over a minute to go, Coach Evans appropriately took Gabby out so the Hauser crowd could express their appreciation. And they did with a standing ovation! Losing in the sectional is hard, in particular when it is the last game in your high school career. However, Gabby has much to be proud of as well as the rest of the team.

I know the Hauser Nation looks forward to supporting their Lady Jets again next season!

For more information about the game, please refer to the Hauser Scoreboard of Facebook, which HSJ Online teams up with Mike Asher to present.