Lady Wolves have work to do to have similar season

The Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves had a great season in the new Wolf Arena last year. They finished 20-10 overall under fifth-year coach Blake Condley. Lake Hamilton advanced to the Class 6A state semifinals, where they lost to eventual state champion Marion 50-37. Lake Hamilton was the second seed from the 6A-West and had a first-round bye. The Lady Wolves beat Mountain Home 43-39 in the first round before bowing out to the Lady Patriots. Lake Hamilton returns three starters from last year’s squad. They are junior Jenny Peake and seniors Grace Tedder and Hannah Walker. “The two starters lost from last year’s team were statistically the leading scorer and top two rebounders,” Condley said. “The team will have to collectively find a way to replace the production from the players lost. We’re going to have to fill some holes.” Condley said one player won’t be able to fill those holes vacated this season. “Collectively, we’re going to have to rebound,” he said. “We’re going to have to rebound really well as a team. It may have to be some of our guards that are going to have to do that.” Lake Hamilton has eight seniors on this year’s squad. In addition to Tedder and Walker, they are Taylor Wells, Jordan Williams, Logan Keener, Serenity Foshee, Kit Adderholt and Meredith Harrison. “They know each other well and work very well together,” Condley said of his team’s biggest strength. Condley said the team will have to figure out where the scoring will come from. “We lost our leading scorer and our third to fourth leading scorers,” he said. “We’ve got enough seniors that I’m confident that we’ll be able to do that. We’ve got girls who have worked really hard over the summer. It’s just a matter of seeing how it’s going to play out once we start playing games and we start competing against folks.” Condley said his team’s weakness is team speed. “We have to play well as a team and help each other to guard the faster teams,” he said. Condley said rivalry games against Hot Springs Lakeside and Hot Springs are “always big games around here.” The Lady Wolves play at Lakeside on Dec. 15 and host the Lady Rams on Jan. 30, then play at Hot Springs on Jan. 16 and host the Lady Trojans on Feb. 16. Lake Hamilton will open the season Nov. 7 against Sheridan at Wolf Arena. The Lady Yellowjackets finished as the Class 6A state runner-up a year ago. Condley said his schedule is home-heavy because of Wolf Arena. “We started being able to do that last year because of our facilities,” he said. “We feel like it’s easy to get teams to come to play us at Wolf Arena. They want to be here. We host a classic in November and a tournament over Christmas break. I’ve been able to fill both of those pretty easily. We’re going to play Conway in the classic.”