Area girls teams tip off basketball season
Girls basketball has tipped off for most of the schools in Union County. Junction City is scheduled to tip off Tuesday at Bearden. The rest of the schools have played at least two games and are well under way.
Strong has gotten off to a fast 2-0 start. The senior-less Lady Bulldogs won the conference title and went 22-8 last season.
Junior Dynasty Davis, who averaged 27.1 points per game a year ago, has scored 38 per game so far this season.
“Our strengths this year is guard play and guard scoring,” said Strong coach Jason Porter. “Also, I have 6-foot-1 sophomore, Chrishunda Williams. Looking for her to do good things this year. Obviously, we run our offense through Dynasty. I’m pretty sure she led the state in scoring as a sophomore and is leading the state this year. We have seen alot of junk defenses the last two years so this year’s squad should be pretty familiar with what we are doing offensively.”
Porter listed junior guard Angel Demler and sophomores Daylan Howard and Sariah Daniels as his other starters.
“Goals are simple,” said Porter. “With us moving into a new conference, we are looking to win it. We have had some success the last few years in regionals so we also are looking to make it back to regionals and after that advance in state. With us being young, we will go through some growing pains early. It helps having a proven elite scorer at guard. If we can get our post play working with Chrishunda, we will be O.K.”
Smackover is 0-2 this season after
going 15-13 a year ago. The Lady Bucks graduated three-year leading scorer Sharnes McGhee and several other seniors. This year’s group will have some new faces.
“Our strengths are we are a pretty quick group. I don’t think there will be many teams who are as fast as we are,” said Smackover coach Tripper Rowton. “Goals for the season are make it to the state tournament for the first time in about 10 years.”
Parkers Chapel has been busy, posting a 1-4 record, including a 30-29 loss to Fountain Lake Saturday in Magnet Cove. The Lady Trojans are young and small.
“Right now, we’re going through some growing pains,” said PC coach Justin Welch. “Of course, basketball is a sport where you don’t have to be your best in the first five or six games. It’s a tournament sport. I really think, as the girls start to build a little bit of chemistry and get comfortable with each other, I think by the end of the season this is going to be a really tough team to play against. I’m excited about that.”
The Lady Trojans went 9-18 last season but turned over its roster with four sophomores in the rotation. Senior T.K.
Burson and sophomore Ali Looney have been the most consistent scorers early on.
“We’re seeing some really good quality. But, we’re not doing it consistently. We’ll go in spurts where we look really good. Then, we’ll have a four or five minute drought where it seems like we’re turning the ball over too much,” said Welch. “But, that happens when you’re playing a lot of younger players, too. I’m excited about the potential and I know they are.”
Parkers Chapel enters a league loaded with traditional girls basketball talent, including Spring Hill, Harmony Grove, Junction City, Fordyce and Woodlawn. Welch’s goal is success in the postseason. But, his young ‘uns will have to grow up fast.
“I want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year. If we’re playing really well, I could see us going deep into regionals,” he said. “But, we’re in a tough conference this year. I could see a couple quality basketball teams not even qualify for regionals. There’s five or six quality teams there and somebody is going to get left at home.”
In Junction City, Coach Henry Harrell led the Lady Dragons to an 18-15 record last season and a first-round win in the 3A state tournament.
Taykeetria Rogers heads the list of returning players.