Dec. 5—Through the first three minutes of their Tuesday, Dec. 3 game, the Lady Tigers basketball team was still without a basket against McAlester.
Down 3-0, sophomore Laken Adams came down the lane and made a contested shot at the rim. As she shot, she was fouled, and she made her free throw to tie the game. That sequence may not seem huge, but at the time, it was big for THS’ youngest starting point guard.
After Adams opened up the scoring, the points started to drop from the Lady Tigers.
That first pop of energy led to three-pointers from Moe Wilson and Lauren Stephens. By the end of the quarter, the Lady Tigers were up 15-6.
“That’s huge; anytime you have a new team, there is always going to be nerves there,” THS head coach David Qualls said. “In season openers, everyone is excited and nervous. The team that settles down first is going to pull away. Laken and Lauren hit some big shots and did a good job of settling us down.”
Adams was a key part in the first quarter, with seven points, and Stephens added five. While those two started off successful, junior Carsyn Gilbert couldn’t find her shot in the first quarter. After missing a handful of baskets, Gilbert stepped up when not a lot of other Lady Tigers were scoring. In the second quarter, Gilbert stepped up for 7-of-11 of THS’ points.
Throughout the game, the Lady Tigers continued to improve, with the most notable being how they came out of halftime. On offense, the Lady Tigers weren’t moving the ball well.
“Offensively, we talked about pushing the ball more. We were dribbling too much and we wanted to move the ball with the pass, and we did that,” Qualls said. “We stretched the defense out a little and got some easy layups.”
Coming out of halftime, the Lady Tigers showed those improvements, which were key in getting Stephens and other post players open in the paint. During the third quarter, the Lady Tigers moved the ball a lot better, finding Stephens leading to 11 points for her in the quarter. Gilbert added a three-pointer.
On the defensive side, the Lady Tigers tightened up their zone defense in the second half. After just hitting one three in the first half, Qualls wanted to force MHS to shoot.
“On defense, we wanted to pack it in a little bit. They hit one three so we wanted to protect the paint,” Qualls said. “We did a better job of making them try and hit contested jump shots.”
Overall, the Lady Tigers had a strong performance on the defensive side of the ball as they outscored MHS 58-36.
“I thought defensively, we did a good job,” Qualls said. “We overstretched our zone in the second, and once we make that adjustment, we held them to five baskets. We did a good job of adjusting and learning as the game went on.”
Even though the Lady Tigers put up 58 points, there were still some points left on the court. THS struggled from the free throw line, making just 3-of-10 attempts. Qualls figures the Lady Tigers could have scored around 70 points with missed free throws and layups.
“There are definitely things to get better at, but I was proud of how well we played and how we finished the second half,” Qualls said. “Being 1-0 is great; no matter how it looks, we will take it.”
The Lady Tigers hit the road for the first time, tipping off at 6 p.m. at Stilwell Friday, Dec. 6.
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