Junior guard Parrish Hudson enjoyed a homecoming of sorts while leading the Wayland girls’ varsity basketball team to a 56-40 victory over Hopkins in the opening round of the Division 2 district tournament at South Christian.

Hudson, who was out of action for three games because of concussion protocol, returned to the lineup Monday night and drilled three three-point field goals in the third quarter to help her team to pull way. She finished with 15 points and Stephanie Ainsworth added 12, as the Lady Wildcats improved their overall season record to 13-8.

Hopkins, meanwhile, finished its campaign with a 12-9 record overall. The Lady Vikings improved on their 66-39 loss score from December.

The contest was exceedingly sloppy in the first four minutes, especially offensively. Freshman Mady Weber scored on a putback for the Vikings at the 3:37 mark for the first field goal of the game, but Wayland’s Haley Dobry wasted no time in answering with the same.

Hopkins had a terrible time trying to penetrate the ‘Cats zone defense and was limited to just five field goals in the entire first half, one a three by Evangelina Helderop, and the other four layups off rebounds or fast breaks.

Wildcat center Stephanie Ainsworth scored eight points and freshman Maddy Terry nailed a couple of threes to highlight their team’s 26-11 advantage at intermission.

With Hudson lighting up threes and scoring 11 points in the third period alone, the ‘Cats enjoyed leads of as many as 20 points.

Helderop hit a couple more threes in her last varsity basketball game and finished with 11 points. Samantha and Olivia Sebright, and Weber all finished with six apiece.

Supporting the usual high scoring of Hudson and Ainsworth were Emma Ludema and Kenzie Wolf with seven points each.

About the only success Hopkins had defensively was on the in-bounds pass, which made Wayland work hard to put the ball in play.

Wayland now advances to the district semifinals to take on O-K Silver Conference co-champion Kelloggsville at 6 p.m. Wednesday. It defeated the Rockets earlier this season, 46-40.

The finals will be Friday evening at 7 p.m. If the Lady Wildcats can get past Kelloggsville, they very likely will face a South Christian squad to whom they have lost twice.