CAC girls boast 1-2 scoring punch this season
Apair of experienced 6-footers in the post have Central Arkansas Christian fans anticipating big things out of the Lady Mustangs this season. The team is paced by returning senior starter Riley Bryant, a three-time all-conference and twotime all-state honoree who averaged 18 points per game last season. Bryant is balanced by fellow senior returnee Livian Burton, who averaged 10 points and 8 rebounds per outing a year ago.
“Riley’s just a really good player, hard worker, great attitude,” head coach Steve Quattlebaum said. “She can shoot the 3 a little bit, as well as score inside. She’s probably best inside right now, though. She’s had a few [college] offers and is looking at a couple of schools. She hasn’t made a decision yet, but she’ll play college basketball.
“Livian is probably our best athlete and was our leading rebounder a year ago. She’s really athletic, jumps well, has good timing on her jump. She’s really worked to improve her offensive skills. She’s kind of a secret to everybody right now, but we’re expecting big things out of her this year.”
The Lady Mustangs registered a blistering 20-9 record last year, were 13-1 in conference play and ranked second in the district. However, the team faltered late, coming in fourth in the regional and losing in overtime to Centerpoint in the first round of the 3A State Tournament.
Quattlebaum said improving down the stretch will take more than his post players, which also include returning starter Carleigh Petlak, a senior forward. But for the first time in recent memory, he said, the backcourt picture is murky.
“It’s unusual for us; we usually are more of a guard-oriented team, but we just don’t have a lot of experience there,” Quattlebaum said. “Jaydn Smith played off the bench for us last year; she’s a junior. She’s one of our better shooters and probably our sixth man most of the year last year, but she didn’t have to handle the ball much. She’s probably going to start out playing the point for us.
“We’re going to struggle a little bit in the backcourt, but I think by the end of the year, Jaydn will do a good job for us. Avary Lillard is another senior who played off the bench last year, too. She’s recovering from an ACL and, hopefully, will be back by November or December.”
Given the team’s lineup, it’s not surprising that getting the ball inside is a focus of CAC’s offensive sets, but that doesn’t mean a slow-down, plodding pace, Quattlebaum said.
“We’ve always played pretty fast,” he said. “Our two post players are really kind of perimeter players, too. We’ll do a lot of five out, a lot of four out. But then we also have an offense where we keep the two in, and we’ll probably use that more than we’ve used it in the past.
“Defensively, we like to press. We do a little soft press, a little 2-2-1 press. We’ve had a history, when we’ve got the right players, we like to play that little diamond press on 2-1-1. We’ll be pretty athletic this year, so we’ll probably play that some.”
Quattlebaum, who will be assisted by Jason Gates and Tasha Williams, enters his 27th season at CAC. He said there’s much to be learned this year with conference realignment — CAC now plays in the 3A-5 — and the addition of the shot clock. That aside, he’s optimistic about the Lady Mustangs’ chances for getting back to the state championship, which they last won in 2018.
“We ended the summer really well with the team camp over at [Little Rock] Episcopal, which I felt good about,” he said. “We’re a small team. We may be down to nine players this year, so I think they’re pretty close-knit. So far, the ones we’ve got are working hard to get ready for the year.”