NATCHEZ &8212; Someone needs to set it up and promote it &8212; Natchez High speedsters KeAirra Jones and Candace Frye in a 100-meter race.

Promoting will be the easy part. The two juniors are bandits on defense and can create havoc on most teams in a full-court man-to-man press. But if you&8217;re looking to find out who&8217;s faster, don&8217;t do anything crazy like flat-out ask them.

They&8217;re good friends, and friends don&8217;t do something like that in their spare time.

&8220;I don&8217;t know,&8221; said Jones, who along with Frye are also standouts on the track in the spring. &8220;Our coach normally doesn&8217;t put us on the same events. A lot of people ask me the same question. She&8217;s quick, I&8217;ll give you that.&8221;

The two are good friends, and they&8217;re part of what will make the Lady Bulldogs go this season on both ends of the court. Both had productive seasons as sophomores on last year&8217;s playoff team with Jones getting more scoring opportunities once she moved to point guard.

Now they&8217;re back, maybe a little bit quicker and plenty more mature.

&8220;We try to push each other,&8221; Frye said. &8220;She pushes me, and we push each other. We&8217;ll get the ball down the floor quicker. We&8217;ve got a fast team. We&8217;ve got to stay under control, run and get the fast break every time.&8221;

The two will have to push each other this season. The Lady Bulldogs are deep along the perimeter with head coach Sue Johnson finding a way to play as many people as possible.

The big question will be in the post, where the graduation of Jasmine Woods and Delequa Drake has the team searching for quality replacements.

The center of the team, however, will be the two speedsters.

&8220;Basically, we&8217;ve been best friends since the sixth grade,&8221; Jones said. &8220;We&8217;ve always played the same sports. We got to middle school, and we played basketball together. We did track our eighth-grade year, and we&8217;ve been friends ever since then. Mostly we agree on everything, and we&8217;re probably going to end going to the same college together.&8221;

But that&8217;s the start of a team that will be blessed with speed and the ability to play defense. The Lady Bulldogs will rely on Miracle Calcote, Kedra Chatman, Erica Jackson, Bianca Robinson, Skyler Chaney, Jennifer Jackson and Tori Paxton.

Calcote had surgery during the off-season, and Chatman has a sore leg that&8217;s kept her out of drills early.

&8220;We lost our inside game, and we&8217;re going to be working with our posts, but we&8217;re going to look for our quickness to carry us this year,&8221; Johnson said. &8220;That&8217;s what we&8217;re depending on. We&8217;ve got to stay healthy. Those are two key players that could be in the starting lineup early.&8221;

The question will be in the inside with 5-10 Niesha Colenburg returning after coming off the bench last season. The Lady Bulldogs will also have sophomore Ebony Stewart along with help from Betsy Felton, Alia Franks and Ashley Morrison down low.

&8220;We&8217;ve got some, but most of them are young,&8221; Johnson said. &8220;They&8217;ve got to step up to the plate, and hopefully they can help us some.&8221;

That&8217;s where the defense will come in. Jones and Frye will be the leaders on a team that will likely will press teams once they get out of the locker room, much of what they did last year as Johnson rotated players in and out during the course of the game.

&8220;We&8217;ve got a little height,&8221; Jones said. &8220;Our press is going to have to make up for the height we don&8217;t have. We&8217;re going to have to press the whole way. If they can&8217;t get the ball down the floor, they can&8217;t score. We&8217;ve got a lot of quickness this year.&8221;

If it&8217;s man-to-man variety, that may suit the Lady Bulldogs fine. Once the full-court man got going at times last season, it gave teams fits.

Said Frye: &8220;I say we&8217;ve got a good defense. We&8217;ve got to stay in front of them, cut them off on the baseline, get our hands up, block out and anticipate the passes.&8221;

On the offensive end, the job will be up to Jones at point guard to make things go and avoid people sitting back in a half-court defense. Jones played point guard a good portion of last season following the knee injury to Brittany West, and she relied mostly on athletic ability in creating her shots while getting tons of points off turnovers.

Jones was the team&8217;s leading scorer at 13.2 points a game last season.

&8220;That&8217;s what I want to play &8212; the point guard,&8221; Jones said. &8220;Just better decision-making, and I&8217;ve got to give it to them at the right time and don&8217;t wait too long.&8221;

The junior &8212; who may be one of the best athletes in the school &8212; will get the chance to run the offense.

&8220;We&8217;re looking for her to be a team leader now more than before,&8221; Johnson said of Jones. &8220;She is the team captain. She&8217;s going to have to keep her cool and lead the team.&8221;