What a week of basketball! The Hornets defeated the top ranked (now #3) Staley Falcons, and bitter conference rival, Oak Park, by a score of 46-38.
 
In crunch time, the Hornets fed off senior, and January athlete-of-the-month Dallas Whitney, to a tune of 19 points, second only to Oak Park freshman, Corbin Allen, who finished with 20.
 
The score seemed to be a lot further away than the 8 point margin indicates, as the Hornets totally controlled both sides of the ball down the stretch. Despite woes, the Hornets tightened up from the charity stripe, hitting 73.5% (13/17), contrary to a 59% season average, all misses coming in the first half.
 
Taking their first lead since 2-0, on a Dallas Whitney three with 2:23 to go in the third, the Hornets would not allow another lead change for the rest of the night, despite the Northmen's best effort.
 
The Hornet defense stifled 2/3 of Oak Parks freshmen trio, holding Aedin Fields and Caleb Estes to 0 and 7, respectively. Estes, the reigning Metro Sports player of the week, seems to have a lid on the basket at NKC. He shoots under 30 percent in the Hive, in a combined 4 appearances this year.
 
The lone exception was of course, Corbin Allen, who in addition to his 20 points posted 10 rebounds. The downside to Allen's performance was his untimely turnovers in the second half that led to 8 NKC points.
 
The Hornets were absent of top scorer, Avian Webb, who just seemed to be off from the field. Guarded by Estes, Webb scored just 3 points on 1/8 shooting. However, Whitney and do-it-all big man Iverson Neal took over in the second half. Neal finished with 10 points, as well as totalling 9 rebounds- 1 away from his 3rd double-double.
 
The Hornets also extended a bizarre streak of 10 wins to only 1 loss, when trailing at halftime, meaning 4 of their 5 losses have come when up at the break, and 10 of their 17 wins coming when trailing. They struggled in the first half, trailing 19-13.

Hornets are back in action on Tuesday as they host Lee's Summit.