For the Lady Red Hawks, it was the margin of victory, 65-28, over the Greenbrier Lady Bobcats.
For the Red Hawks, it was handing the Bobcats their first district loss, 71-64.
Both teams needed those respective wins, in those respective ways, on Tuesday night.
The Lady Red Hawks, after a difficult stretch of games, got back-to-back easy wins over Portland and Greenbrier.
Tuesday night against the Lady Bobcats specifically, it seemed they could not miss.
Three, nearly four, of the five starters scored in double figures.
As well, the flow of the game was much more in Creek Wood’s favor from the beginning.
Coach Wilson lamented how nice it was to relax on the bench and see the girls just have fun and play basketball after the stretch they had been through.
As well, he was extremely happy to get to play the entire second half in what he remarked was “three teams.”
At the half, they broke it down to three lineups, two with two starters and one with one, and went out and rotated through them.
That means not only did his entire bench get a whole half of experience as if it were a JV game, but they got that experience alongside Varsity talent.
Coach Wilson said he told his starters to “take care of” the others and felt they did that.
Obviosuly, on the other hand, the Red Hawks had a much different challenge.
A 17-1 Greenbrier team was in town and they were 4-0 in the district.
Without Jamison Ford and luckily getting back Braden Dawson, this was a tall task for the Red Hawks.
They certainly seemed up to the task, leading 36-21 at the half.
However, according to AD Tim Decker, “it’s hard to hold a lead against a good team.”
Meanwhile, Head Coach Charles Taylor attributed their first-half margin to Bobcat Foul trouble.
It was an incredibly physical game where the referees, did their best to only call the obvious fouls, and still, both teams were in the double bonus in the fourth quarter.
Decker was not wrong either as Greenbrier would find a way to get it to low single digits in the second half.
However, on senior night, one senior had something to prove.
Jace Herrell had not looked like himself the past several games.
That changed Tuesday night when he dropped thirty-two points to lead his team to victory.
Herrell hit four clutch FT’s with under a minute and a half to play and helped seal the win.
It is also worth mentioning that on a night when Ford was not available, Clint Morgan also decided to prove a point.
Morgan had been a solid role player for a few weeks.
Against Greenbrier, he was much more.
Directly causing or aiding in causing multiple Bobcat turnovers, Morgan also scored twelve key points and sunk two key FT’s with under a minute to go.
Tuesday night’s game was one that could really turn the tide for the Red Hawks.
Winning games is one thing, winning big ones is another.
We had not seen the Red Hawks win a game they were not supposed to yet, now we have.
Friday night we will see if both teams can keep their win streaks alive.
Creek Wood will travel to Montgomery Central to face the Indians.
Tip-off at 6 pm, pre-game at 5:45.
