HSPN 3A Finals

CHEN Bravehearts 41 New Life Storm 36

The Storm season drew to a close with a 41-36 loss to the Bravehearts of the Christian Home Educators Network of Maryland in the finals of the 3A bracket at the HSPN East Coast Tournament. This game was a defensive struggle, with both teams playing with a lot of intensity and forcing turnovers. The NCAA arena seemed to throw off the 3-point shooting the Storm relies on, as they went only 1-19 from the arc on the game. The Bravehearts pulled out front early, going ahead by as much as 17-8 in the second quarter. The Storm refused to wilt and battled back to within 21-18 at the half. The second half remained close and the Storm increased the defensive pressure and created turnovers. Fast break baskets by Georgia and Hannah Grace tied the game at 26. A rebound basket by Georgia and 2 inside buckets by Shelby kept the Storm neck-and-neck with the Bravehearts in the 4th quarter. Great defense and tremendous effort kept the Storm in the game to the end and gave opportunities to win, but we were never able to get that one big play to grab the lead. Hannah Grace and Georgia led the scoring for the Storm with 9 and 8 points, respectively. Anna pulled down 11 rebounds and Rebecca dished out 5 assists.

The tournament was a great week of basketball and a lot of fun. All 10 girls had moments to shine here. Rebecca and Hannah Grace were voted to the first-team All-Tournament team and Anna was voted to the second team All-Tournament team.

Hannah Wins!

Congratulations to Hannah for winning the 15U 3-point contest at the HSPN Tournament. Georgia finished in 2nd place to complete a Storm sweep.

HSPN Girls 3-pt Contest

Rebecca, Hannah, and Georgia advance to the finals! Congrats to Rebecca for making the finals of the 19U girls 3-pt contest, and to Hannah and Georgia for making the finals of the 15U girls 3-pt contest.

HSPN Division 3A Semi-Finals

New Life Storm 62 Binghamton Blaze 36

The NLC Storm played their way into the 3A championship game with a blowout victory over the Binghamton (NY) Blaze 62-36. Unlike their first 3 games of the tournament, the Storm got off to a slow start, falling behind 8-3. Two 3's by Rebecca helped steady the Storm and a 3 by Georgia put them ahead 12-10 before the Blaze scored to tie the game at 12-12 at the end of the quarter. Hannah Grace began the second quarter with a steal and layup, then followed with another breakaway off of a defensive rebound outlet from Daryl to start a Storm rally. Jump shots by Shelby and Katie continued the rally and the Storm raced to a 32-20 halftime lead. In the second half the Storm continued to pour it on, scoring the first 8 points of the quarter to open up a 20-point lead. The Blaze then made a run to cut the lead back to 12, but the Storm stopped the run and pulled away over the last 10 minutes of the game. Rebecca scored 19 (including 4-6 from 3-pt range) and Hannah Grace had 15 to lead the Storm and Daryl pulled down 14 rebounds.

The Storm will face the Bravehearts of Baltimore, MD for the 3A title at 6:00 tomorrow. The game will be held in the 9000-seat Vines Center arena where the Liberty University Flames play.