The Huntsville Item, Huntsville, TX

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February 18, 2010

Huntsville girls to put Panthers in pressure cooker

Lady Hornets coach: Team must do better job on boards to get past Kingwood Park

By Cody Stark Assistant Sports Editor

HUNTSVILLE — While the Lady Hornets were taking care of Elgin in the bi-district round of the playoffs Tuesday night, Huntsville assistant girls basketball coach Mike Ray was scouting Huntsville’s next opponent.

The Lady Hornets (23-7) are set to battle Kingwood Park in the area round today at 6 p.m. at the Campbell Center in Houston.

The Lady Panthers (16-13), the runner-ups out of District 19-4A, knocked off Beaumont Ozen 46-41 on Tuesday. Ray handed over his scouting report to Jay Oliphant and the first-year head coach went to work on a game plan.

“They have a really good post player, Larla Brown, and she can play,” Oliphant said Wednesday. “But they only run a seven-man rotation. My plan is to wear them down.”

So far that plan has worked for Huntsville this season. The Lady Hornets’ bread and butter has been pressing all over the court and causing turnovers. Pressure defense fuels the team’s offense.

That style of play helped Huntsville capture a co-district championship and was the key to the 69-44 victory over Elgin on Tuesday.

The Lady Wildcats hung around early, but in the second half, the Lady Hornets’ up-tempo play wore down Elgin. About the only thing that went wrong for Huntsville was its lack of rebounding.

Oliphant said Wednesday that controlling the glass would be an emphasis in practice since Kingwood Park’s Brown, a 5-foot-11 senior forward, is going to be a handful.

“Anytime you give a team second chances, that is dangerous,” the Lady Hornets coach said. “We did a terrible job on the offensive glass against Elgin. We probably gave them 18 second-chance points. We have to box out.

“We also have to do a better job at the free-throw line. We went 4 of 16. We can’t have that.”

The good news is that this young Lady Hornets squad knows what it takes to win in the playoffs. Last season, Huntsville was bounced in the first round by Del Valle.

Tuesday in the win over Elgin, the Lady Hornets got off to a slow start before settling in and taking care of business.

This time around, the girls should be more relaxed.

“They do seem more relaxed, but we will see when Friday gets here,” Oliphant said. “We are going to spend time watching film and shooting a lot of free throws. At this point, we have to do the little things right if we want to keep advancing.”

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Hornet Sports
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