New-look Lady Tigers roll past Tharptown
By Staff
Mike Self, FCT Sports Editor
RED BAY – Many of the names and faces are different this season for Red Bay's girls basketball team, but-judging by Monday's season-opening 75-34 rout of Tharptown-some things never change.
The Lady Tigers (1-0) forced 18 turnovers, dominated the boards and relied on a balanced scoring attack-in short, they played Red Bay basketball.
"I was pretty pleased with the way we played," said head coach Donnie Roberts, whose squad is still adjusting to life without the seven seniors who graduated last year. "We still have a lot of tuning up to do, but for the first game I thought our girls played well."
Brittany Scott had 18 points to lead the Lady Tigers, who went on an early 14-0 run and led 28-4 at the end of the first quarter.
Junior center Chelsey McWilliams, the lone returning starter, added 15 points. Sophomore guards Kirsten Sharp and Britan Bolding finished with 14 points and nine points, respectively.
"Most of these girls have played [varsity] before," Roberts said. "Kirsten, Britan and Morgan [Duncan] were on the ninth-grade team last year, but we pretty much played a mini-schedule over the summer. We faced some tough competition at team camp at Birmingham Southern, and our girls played in a summer league, too. We had a pretty good idea of what to expect from them."
So did anybody who has seen Red Bay play in recent years. The Lady Tigers out-rebounded Tharptown 38-22, came up with 16 steals, and held the Lady Wildcats (3-2) to 31 percent shooting from the field.
Still, Roberts saw plenty of room for improvement from his young squad.
"We didn't do a very good job containing the dribble, and we didn't pressure the passing lanes very well," he said. "We had a little bit of a letdown in those areas, and we have to improve."
Tharptown's leading scorer, sophomore guard Hollie Hines, picked up two fouls in the game's opening minutes and spent much of the first half on the sidelines. She finished with a team-high 12 points, seven less than her season average.
Red Bay led 39-12 at the half and 57-25 after three quarters.
Also on Monday:
Junior girls
Red Bay 49 Tharptown 12
Whitney Sharp had 17 points and Emily Barksdale added 10 for the Lady Tigers.
In other recent action:
Varsity girls
Tharptown 61 Vina 44
Hollie Hines had 20 points and Laken Barnett added 17 to lead the Lady Wildcats past Vina in Friday's home game.
Vina's Heather Holland led all scorers with 22 points. LeShe McGee and Kayla Bridges each added six for the Lady Red Devils.
