Hart girls’ basketball beats Golden Valley, 77-30

By Ryan Menzie 

Signal Sports Writer  

Prior to the Friday night matchup between the Hart Indians (5-2, 1-0) girls basketball team and the Golden Valley Grizzlies (2-4, 0-1), the Indians played in the Brentwood tournament starting Tuesday and accumulated only one day of practice and played three games before facing the Grizzlies.  

The energy would still remain high for the Indians, who won all three games prior to facing the Grizzlies and continued with another resounding, 77-30, victory.  

“We’ve been preparing all week for the Grizzlies by playing in a tough tournament, so I think they were relieved to start league,” said Indians head coach Jerry Mike. “The teamwork, ball movement, hustle and energy were all really good. They were all fired up and had the energy and were able to move the ball pretty well. Overall, I thought they played a very good game.” 

The Indians went on a tear to open the game, outscoring the Grizzlies 29-6 in the first quarter on the way to a 57-12 first-half score. The Indians were led by center Kayla Hourigan, who accounted for 18 of the team’s first-half points and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds.  

“I think it was a great team effort,” said Horigan. “We had a lot of unselfish passes and it really improved our game. If I’m open, I want passes from my teammates so I was trying to give the same energy. We knew what we had to do. We had a lot of games this week so we’re slowly going to keep getting better as we head deeper into league.” 

Indians guard Laney Grider finished with 10 points. Guard Morgan Mack and small forward Liana Olmos finished with nine points each. 

The Grizzlies were led by guard Valery Garcia with seven points. Guard Mariah Payan finished with six points and forward Valerie Ricalday finished with five points.  

The Indians will look to keep their hot streak going against Saugus on Tuesday at 5 p.m. while the Grizzlies look to change their fortunes with a matchup against Canyon on Tuesday at 5 p.m.