Fast start helps Hatboro-Horsham cruise past Springfield-Montco
HORSHAM >> It’s been a season of ups and downs for both Hatboro-Horsham and Springfield this year.
Inconsistent play has haunted both clubs as they have sputtered some so far. However, it was all Hatters from tip-off to final whistle Thursday night as they cruised to a 47-30 non-conference victory.
In order to succeed in basketball, you need to have consistency. The long season and grueling schedule require any team that wishes to compete to make sure they bring its best night in and night out, and that is something that Springfield continued to struggle with.
Coming off an encouraging effort against Suburban One League American Conference foe Plymouth Whitemarsh, which saw them fall by just one in a closely-contested game in which they were the heavy underdog, the Spartans were simply outmatched.
“We have to start playing a quarter at a time and being consistent,” Spartans assistant coach Laurie Kristiniak said. “We played an awesome game against PW on Tuesday and then this happened tonight so we’ve got to kind of get ourselves balance and do what we know we can do.”
For the Hatters, it started early. They were sparked by senior forward Haley Seifert’s 10 first-half points, eight of which came in the first quarter as HH jumped out to a 13-5 lead at the end of the quarter and never looked back.
Seifert hit her first five attempts from the field and gave her team exactly what it needed to pull away early.
“I just took the shots that came to me honestly,” said Seifert, who finished with a game-high 14 “We just started playing way more as a team today than we have been in the past. We were passing the ball around really nicely and I think that just got me the open looks.”
While it had some troubles with Seifert, Springfield’s main shortcomings came on the offensive side of the ball, where they shot 28 percent from the field. Perhaps the most frustrating part was that they were open, the Spartans just had an off night and it showed up on the stat sheet.
Click here to view the PHOTO GALLERY from the game.
Hatboro-Horsham did a good job mixing up their defensive calls and keeping the Spartans on their heels, but the shots were there, they just weren’t falling.
“We were getting shots too,” Kristiniak said. “It’s the life of a basketball game you kind of have to get it figured out and go forward and let them get their confidence. We tried to get in the mindset of doing what they did last game but it was a different here.”
Thirteen points from Molly Dugan gave the Spartans some life at times, but the poor shooting was just too much to overcome.
On top of that, the Hatters were determined to play an extremely controlled game, turning the ball over just a handful of times and making sure they took the right shot, something that hasn’t always been the case for this team.
“I feel like we just played smarter than we’ve been,” Hatters head coach Kathie Sims said. “We played calm and we played with our heads and we played hard.”
They will need some of that smart play to continue as they go forward, next up for the Hatters is Pennridge as they get back into their SOL Continental schedule.
