Lady Cats are finally ‘Clicking’
The expectations of the Tom Bean Lady Cats basketball team before the season started can be summed up in one word: playoffs. It seemed like a possible task, seeing as the majority of last year’s playoff team would be returning. Then cam November, and a shaky start came along with it. The ladies dropped their first four games of the season. Then, they bounced back with five wins to compensate for lost time, including a win by the narrowest of margins over Leonard. November was a ‘rollercoaster’ of a month for the girls, but it seemed that, at the time, the team that would march straight to post-season play was upon us. That was until the Lady Cats were again hit with another losing streak; this time spanning six games and the entire month of December. Of the eight games played in the last month of the year, the ladies lost seven. Surely something could be done to turn their season around.
In the middle of that December mess, district play began. A trip to rivals Howe would see the ladies drop the first of three consecutive district games. Coach Martinez highlighted the fact that her teams play was inconsistent in this quote about the Howe game.
“If you look at the second, third, and fourth quarter, we did what we needed to do. It’s just coming out ready to play; we kind of got caught off guard, and they were a little more ready to play than we were. So that’s our big thing now: making sure we’re ready from the start.”
Occasionally, the girls would have that ‘one bad quarter’, which was a time when the swift offensive and strong defensive efforts given in the rest of the game would turn into poor passing and shaky defense. The other three quarters would be fine, but that one adverse period would force them to fight for the win the rest of the game.
With the New Year came a new opportunity and a chance to jump back into the playoff race. A trip to Pottsboro was in the cards, and a win was absolutely necessary. It seemed that the holiday break was just what the doctor ordered for the Lady Cats. They rode on the back of senior Lindsey Lacy’s late free-throws for a big 50-48 win. Sure, it was narrow; and, no, it wasn’t easy. But, it was enough to raise the hopes of Martinez and her players. Maybe, now, the fans would finally see a playoff run worthy of writing stories about.
An even bigger win came just two days later when the Lady Cats beat rivals Whitewright 57-35. This was a game in which the talents of juniors Heather McAfee and Kayla Hastings shone brightest. McAfee was unstoppable when driving to the hoop. With her swift movements and skills with the basketball, she easily made the Lady Tiger defense look like Swiss cheese. Hastings used her advantage in height to make some easy buckets for the Lady Cats. The 5’10” center/post has accumulated 121 rebounds so far; 84 of those have been on the defensive end.
I believe Martinez puts it best when she says her girls are finally “clicking”. Now, they are working as one unit, one fine oiled machine that can match any challenge and achieve many feats. This is the team that caused all that pre-season hype, and, if you’ve seen them play, you would think they were made to play basketball together.