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The Chelsea Hornets brushed off an early scare to cruise down the stretch against Hueytown and reach their fourth Elite Eight in five years behind 20-point days from Haley Trotter and Sadie Schwallie. (For the Reporter/Robert Dean)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – After a dominant start to the game, history threatened to repeat itself with the Chelsea Hornets.

Struggles on both ends of the court let the Hueytown Golden Gophers tie up the game early in the second quarter of their Sweet 16 showdown, similarly to how the Hornets let Hewitt-Trussville take last year’s Elite 8 game.

However, there were three key differences: Hueytown’s response, Chelsea coach Jason Harlow’s response and the Hornets’ response.

“We were in a similar situation last year in the regional final where we came out and we played really poor in a half, which is always a credit to your opponent,” Harlow said, referring to the Hewitt-Trussville game. “And I went in at JSU and just ripped them at halftime. And so, when I walked in today, I felt like they kind of expected that.

“That’s not what we did. We just said, ‘We were in this scenario last year, where we didn’t play well and we found ourselves in the deficit at halftime. You didn’t play well in this half, and guess what?  You’re up six points. We’ve been in foul trouble, and we got hurt on the glass in the second quarter, but you’re still up six points. Everybody take a deep breath and we know we’re a good basketball team and we can take care of business and the second half if we play our style.’”

Chelsea did just that and capitalized on their opportunity to put the game away early in the third quarter, and as a result, it defeated Hueytown 63-34 on Thursday, Feb. 13 at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome to reach its fourth Elite Eight in the last five years.

That’s a feat that even Harlow couldn’t have imagined when he took this job.

“If you would have told me seven years ago that we would have went to the regional final four out of five years, I would have told you you were crazy,” Harlow said. “But then again, we’ve been fortunate to have really good players come through this program and we know we came up short last year in this moment, and we’re a year older and I think we’re improved.”

The Hornets burst out of the gate on a 9-0 run thanks to a pair of Haley Trotter baskets and a Sadie Schwallie 3-pointer to trigger a timeout with 5:20 left in the first. Schwallie would hit another 3-pointer a couple of minutes later, but besides that, Chelsea struggled to score the rest of the quarter.

During that time, Hueytown outscored the Hornets 12-5 to chip away at the lead down the stretch in the first. That left Chelsea’s lead at just 14-9 going into the second quarter.

The Golden Gophers kept rolling in the opening minutes of the second and tied the game up at 14-14 with a 3-pointer. While the Hornets couldn’t find the bottom of the net over the next few minutes, neither could Hueytown as Chelsea’s defense recaptured its dominant form.

That changed after Trotter converted an and-1 opportunity to take a 17-14 lead with 2:45 remaining in the half. She took over the remaining minutes of the second, adding six more points to get her to 13 for the half.

Trotter capped off the response with a 3-pointer with less than 20 seconds left until the break to put the Hornets up 25-19 at halftime.

Chelsea took that momentum into the second half and quickly grabbed an 11-point lead thanks to Schwallie’s third 3-pointer of the game and four more points from Trotter in the opening minute-and-a-half of the third.

The duo combined for all 17 of the Hornets’ points in the third quarter as they continued to pour on the offense.

Schwallie hit another 3-pointer to increase the lead to 39-23 with three minutes left in the third, but a Trotter deep shot with 42 seconds left was the Hornets’ only offense of the remaining stretch of the quarter.

It wouldn’t matter much though as Chelsea’s defense locked down throughout the third quarter and allowed just six points across the first eight minutes of the half. That helped the Hornets extend their lead to 42-25 by the end of the third.

It was that defensive effort that Harlow pointed to, particularly with Sydney Carroll and Trotter’s play in the full-court press with Pryor in foul trouble, that he believed help put the game on ice.

“We made shots, but at the end of the day, I feel like we guarded really well in the second half,” Harlow said. “And that’s where it all started for us is defense leading to offense.”

Chelsea put the final nail in the coffin with a blistering 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the fourth. Brown kicked off the stretch before Olivia Pryor scored the next two baskets and Schwallie finished it at the free throw line.

From there, the Hornets extended the lead to 30 points before calling off the dogs and clinching a spot in the Elite Eight.

Trotter secured another 20-point double-double thanks to her 27 points, 16 rebounds and five assists. Schwallie finished with one of her highest totals of the season with 20 points as well as three assists and three steals.

Pryor joined them in double figures with 10 points and five rebounds and Brown rounded out the scoring with six points and three steals.

After the game, Harlow said that the experience his seniors have gotten during that run of consecutive Elite Eight appearances helped them be ready for another difficult moment in Montgomery.

“I think it says that our kids have maybe grown up a little bit, and you always benefit going to play at these regional sites with youth,” Harlow said. “Haley Trotter has played in this game. This is her fourth Sweet 16 game. This is Sadie Schwallie’s fourth Sweet 16 game, and I think that’s experience that you just can’t teach, and they really stepped up for us. Sadie had some shots and Haley was great in the second half. And, we expect our seniors to do that along with Sydney Carroll, she came in and did a good job in the paint for us and did a good job on the board, so I’m really proud of them.”

Now, the Hornets will look to lean on that veteran experience in a battle against the Benjamin Russell Wildcats on Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 12:30 p.m. at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome with a spot in the Final Four on the line.

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