HANCEVILLE – The Hartselle varsity girls basketball season came to an end on Friday afternoon as it dropped a 51-29 decision to Hazel Green in the semifinals of the Northwest Regional.

Hartselle (25-6) opened the game showing no signs of backing down to the No. 1 team in Class 6A. The Lady Tigers held a 13-5 lead after one quarter of play and controlled the action on both offense and defense in the period.

The Trojans (32-2) closed the second quarter on a 5-0 run to take their first lead of the game, 21-20, into the locker room. The second half was all Hazel Green. The Trojans outscored Hartselle 30-9 over the final two quarters to advance to Tuesday’s Northwest Regional Final.

“I thought we played well in the first half,” said head coach Gary Orr. “We struggled to make some shots in the second half and that helped them get some run outs and easy scores. We had a couple of nice looks that didn’t go down and when they have the momentum, you have to make shots to stop that.”

Moriah Taylor led the Lady Tigers with 14 points. Brooke Hampel paced the Trojans with 22 while Caitlin Hose – a Georgia commit – finished with 11.

“These kids have nothing to hang their heads about,” Orr said. “This is a special group and I know this hurts for Anna. She’s had a great career at Hartselle. Hopefully this young group takes this experience and we can be back next year.”