Head coach Michelle Gambrel makes no bones about how bad she wants to see the Conner girls basketball team make it back to Truist Arena for the 9th Region Tournament, especially for the five seniors.
Conner has not done that since these five seniors in Anna Hamilton, Aubree Depenbrock, Ava Brown, Aubrey Fisher and Payton Gutzwiller were eighth graders in 2020. On Saturday, the Cougars celebrated their five seniors then went out and showed how bad they want that elusive region trip, downing the visiting Campbell County Camels for a 62-39 win.
“I’m a huge believer in momentum,” Gambrel said. “I told the girls we don’t have time to go down now. We have to keep going higher.”
Hamilton displayed her usual consistency scoring 19 points – two points above her season average – and getting her teammates involved. Depenbrock and Izelee Kerns followed with 16 points each and Alexis Craddock made two 3-pointers on her way to eight points. Conner shot 46% from the field in the game.
Hamilton and Depenbrock also made two 3-pointers each. Hamilton’s two came in the final 1:10 of the first half to help expand Conner’s lead from 25-17 to 33-17. They both came after Conner grabbed offensive rebounds.
“It means a ton. My teammates and I work hard. I have to give credit to my teammates,” Hamilton said. “They all pass me the ball. They get me open. We’re playing well down the stretch.”
Conner grabbed 38 rebounds overall. Kerns had 12 and Depenbrock added 11 for double-doubles.
“I feel like it wasn’t just me, but multiple players on the team have great hustle,” Kerns said. “I feel like that’s what got us the points. Not just the hustle, but also working as a team helped as well.”
Conner played good defense on Campbell County’s leading scorer in Izzy Jayasuriya. Jayasuriya averaged 13.9 points per game entering Saturday, but Conner held her to four.
“She’s a nice player for them. Anna (Hamilton) did a good job on her,” Gambrel said. “She took (Jayasuriya) out of the game early.”
Campbell County tried to use its depth to get back in the game. Nine different Camels scored with Macie Peoples leading the way scoring eight points.
“When you go into a game and get outworked, it’s never going to be good,” Campbell County head coach Davey Johnson said. “We gave up probably 15 offensive rebounds in the first half. I don’t know the exact number. Conner always plays extremely hard and we didn’t match that intensity and that effort, so it got away from us.”
Conner took the lead for good just 80 seconds into the game when Depenbrock hit a three. The Cougars finished the first quarter with a 9-3 run to go up 20-11.
They led 33-19 at halftime then scored the first seven points of the second half to go up 40-19. The closest Campbell County came after that was 17 with 3:41 left when Jayasuriya hit a free throw after an offensive rebound.
Conner (13-14) has one regular season game left at Holy Cross on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Campbell County (17-10) hosts Beechwood on Monday at 7 p.m.
COUGARS 62, CAMELS 39
CAMPBELL COUNTY — 11-8-7-13 — 39
CONNER — 20-13-15-14 — 62
Scoring
Campbell County (39) — Peoples 8, Feebeck 7, Whitford 5, Collins 5, Jayasuriya 4, Barbian 3, Augsback 3, Hull 2, Davis 2
Conner (62) — Hamilton 19, Depenbrock 16, Kerns 16, Craddock 8, Brown 3
Game Stats
3-Pointers: Campbell County 3, Conner 7
Free Throws: Campbell County 16/24, Conner 3/7
Fouls: Campbell County 12, Conner 18
Records: Campbell County 17-10, Conner 13-14