Girls Basketball - Hempfield vs Canon McMillan

January 10, 2022

Hempfield Girls Beat Canon-McMillan 60-56 for First Section Win

If anyone was looking for an indicator of how the Hempfield Area girls basketball team would fare against Canon-McMillan, Alexis Hainesworth dropped a clue out of the clouds early on. She drained a 3-point shot in the opening 15 seconds of the game, later adding 3 more, to lead the Spartans past the Big Macs 60-56 in a Class 6A Section 2 matchup on Monday, January 10, at Hempfield's Spartan Fieldhouse.

Hainesworth had the early hot hand for Hempfield, scoring 7 of the team's first quarter points, to give the Lady Spartans a 14-11 lead after the opening quarter.

Canon-Mac battled back in the second with Stellanie Loutsion getting two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws to lead her team's 19-point output. Hempfield's 16 points knotted the game at 30-30 at the midway point.

Hempfield went long ball in the third quarter, opening up a 5-point margin on Canon-Mac, as Hainesworth landed three more 3-pointers along with one from Brooke McCoy.

But the Spartans put the Big Macs into the bonus prior to the start of the fourth quarter. Canon-McMillan chipped away at Hempfield's lead with Loutsion going 4-for-4 from the foul line in the quarter along with a pair of field goals. Canon-Mac had the lead 54-53 with 3 minutes to play before Mia Shipman's 3-pointer from the top of the arc put the Spartans up by two again. Canon-Mac tied it at 56 with 1:30 to play, but a Hempfield field goal with 1:10 left swung the lead to the home team again. The Big Macs were forced to foul Brooke McCoy with 29.3 seconds to play, and she hit both shots of a one-and-one to seal the 60-56 win for Hempfield.

Alexis Hainesworth led Hempfield with 18, including four 3-pointers. Brooke McCoy was next with 13, including two 3s, followed by Mia Shipman with 11 and Sarah Podkul with 10. Shipmand and Podkul each contributed a 3-pointer to Hempfield's team total of 8. Ashley Hosni was the other point scorer for Hempfield with 8, including a pair of crucial fourth quarter field goals.

Stellanie Loutsion led all scorers with 23, including two 3-pointers and a 7-of-8 performance from the foul line. Tori Wesolowski added 12 points and Julianna Borella had the other 2 of the visitors' 4 3-point field goals.

Hempfield (2-9, 1-4) will travel to Baldwin for a section game on 1/13. Canon-McMillan (4-6, 0-4) will host Bethel Park in a section game on 1/13.