El Dorado girls basketball to take on Lake Hamilton
Perhaps El Dorado basketball announcer Mark Williams could do his version of Bruce Buffer for tonight’s showdown against Lake Hamilton.
Buffer is the flamboyant UFC announcer who starts every main event by screaming, “It’s Time!”
If El Dorado’s girls hope to advance to the 5A State Tournament this season, “It’s time!”
Lake Hamilton leads the conference with a 16-6, 9-2 record. Sheridan is second with an 8-3 league mark while Benton, Hot Springs and El Dorado are tied at 7-4.
Only four teams will earn state tournament berths, which leaves three teams fighting for
two spots. Current tiebreakers put the Lady Wildcats in fifth.
Hot Springs owns two wins over the Lady Wildcats. Benton, which hosts El Dorado on Friday, won at Wildcat Arena 42-40. The Lady Wildcats end the season at home against Sheridan next Tuesday.
“The attitude right now is fight for your life,” said El Dorado coach Destinee Rogers. “Our plan is, every single game we have left, we’re going to leave it all on the floor. And, we’ll live with the results. I feel like if we play hard and we play together, we’re a tough team.”
El Dorado (16-7, 7-4) won at Lake Hamilton 50-49 on Jan. 18. Since then, the Lady Wildcats dropped close games to Lakeside (38-36), Benton (42-40) and Hot Springs (44-42).
Rogers insisted her team has put the losses behind them.
“Our future is in our hands,” she said.
A win over Lake Hamilton would do wonders for the Lady Wildcats’ playoff aspirations.
“It’s a winnable game. We’re at home. As long as we play hard and help each other out and really communicate, we’ll give ourselves a chance to beat them,” said Rogers. “It’s going to be tough. They all can shoot it. They’re smart. They’re playing really well, right now. And, our backs are against the wall, right now. We have to fight for our lives. I really feel like if we come out and we play hard and we fight, at the end of that ball game, we’re going to have a chance to win.”
The Lady Wolves use a perimeter based attack, which can expose weaknesses on defense. Weaknesses on one end of the court could be strengths on the other, however.
“They start five guards and they all can shoot,” said Rogers. “We’re going to play the way we normally do. We should have the advantage on offense if we’ll post them up and make them guard us on the inside. But, they’re guardable. They’re definitely guardable.”
Rogers quipped when asked about Lake Hamilton’s post play, “They haven’t been playing a post. If they magically appear with one tomorrow, I don’t know where she came from.”
The coach said the Lady Wolves play man-to-man defense and bring help in the post. El Dorado’s Jessica Morton and Diamond Hawthorne could be featured tonight in the low block.
“I just believe if we run our offense efficiently and execute, we should be able to score,” she said. “They don’t really double down. They played us behind (the posts) the first time. What they’ll do is, they’ll help off our guards. What we have to do, when they help off, look and see who’s helping off and then make the pass.”
A lot is at stake tonight and not just for El Dorado. Lake Hamilton leads Sheridan by a single game. Plus, the Lady Wildcats’ win in Pearcy probably has not been forgotten.
“They’re going come in here (ticked) off and they’re going to play hard. We’ve got to be ready to roll. If they punch us in the mouth, we have to punch them back. Not literally, but figuratively,” Rogers said.
“They’ll be (ticked) off but we should be (ticked) off, too. We shouldn’t be in fifth place. You know what I mean? It should be two (ticked) off teams playing (today.).”
The JV game tips off at 5 p.m. The varsity girls should start at approximately 6 p.m.