Lady Bucks set to face No. 1 seed Centerpoint at regional
Smackover's girls will have to get up pretty early in the morning if they hope to earn a berth in the 3A State Tournament. The Lady Bucks' will tip off Wednesday at 10 a.m., in the opening round of the Region 4 Tournament in Prescott.
Smackover, seeded fourth after finishing second in the regular season, will square off with No. 1 seeded Centerpoint. The Knights, who finished second in the 3A 7 during the season, upset top-seeded Ashdown 52-49 in the district finals.
Smackover coach Makara Frazier believes her team will be pumped and ready for the biggest game of the season.
“I think I have a couple seniors that are realizing it's win or go home, and they realize they're on their last legs. They're going to push to give what they've got to finish out their high school careers,” said Frazier. “I also feel like I have a lot of underclassmen that feel like they have a lot they want to prove in regard to who they are and their name moving
forward to next year. They understand if we give everything we've got, if that's what it took and we still didn't win, then we're good. But we're going to go out swinging.”
The Lady Bucks are coming off a disappointing loss to Lake Village in the 3A 8 district tournament. Bouncing back from that setback will be crucial.
“If we have some people step up coming off the bench and we come in fully refocused and ready to work, I think we have a good chance to win and move as far as we can go in regionals and go on to the state tournament,” said Frazier.
Centerpoint brings a 17-5 record into the contest.
“They're a smaller-sized team that's really quick, really into getting the ball up. They play solid,” said Frazier.
“They have a younger team, but they play really well together and they're very mature. I think last year they had four freshmen starting. They're a good team. They're going to be scrappy, but I feel like we match up well against them size-wise. If we come out there and take care of business, we'll be alright.”
The key for Smackover will be slowing down the Knights' uptempo offense.
“They score, primarily on drives and kick-outs or getting out in transition buckets. They get up the floor really fast. They play a very fast-paced basketball game,” said
Frazier.
“I think the key to slowing them down is not letting them get comfortable with whatever defense we're in. They play their best when they know what you're going to do and where you're going to go. I think if we sprint back on defense and pay attention to what we're in and running the game plan, we should be able to slow them down.”
As far as the 10 a.m. start, Frazier actually laughed about it.
“I'm going to be honest with you, I like the odds of playing at 10 versus playing at 4 p.m. We work better in the morning,” she said.
“We have a lot of morning practices on Saturdays. I think that helps a lot.”