WCCA, Trinity get wins

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, November 2, 2011

WCCA's Mary Doucet tries to make a play while being guarded by Amite School's Katherine Billgren during their game Tuesday afternoon at ACCS. (Eric Shelton \ The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — It would be fair to say that the Wilkinson County Christian Academy girls’ basketball team is young this season.

The Lady Rams feature just four varsity players, and that youth showed in their season-opening loss to Centreville Academy Monday night, head coach Brandi McDaniel said.

But the Lady Rams bounced back Tuesday night at the ACCS Tip-Off Tournament.

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Senior Terri Fisher fueled the WCCA offense with 22 points, and the Lady Rams beat Amite School Center 31-22.

“We were real rusty last night,” McDaniel said. “We had more effort tonight from more girls.”

Fisher scored all of the Lady Rams’ 7 first-quarter points, and WCCA led 7-4 after the first quarter.

WCCA extended that lead to eight by halftime and 10 by the end of the third quarter. The Lady Rams slowed a bit in the fourth, and Amite School Center actually outscored them 5-4 in the final quarter.

Marlee Touchstone led ASC with 12 points.

McDaniel said her team only had four practices leading up to the first game, and she hopes that her young team will have a chance to continue to develop with six off-days ahead.

“We knew a little bit more tonight,” she said. “We didn’t even know the in-bounds plays yesterday. Tonight we were more prepared.

“(The win) felt good. I hope we get more. We lost all our starters from last year, but we can recover.”

WCCA will host ACCS Tuesday.

Trinity 43, Central Private 17

Trinity Episcopal head coach Richy Spears saw a few positives and a few negatives in the Lady Saints’ first basketball game of the season Tuesday afternoon.

Trinity cruised to a 43-17 victory over Central Private, and Spears said he liked how his team worked together, especially early in the contest.

“I thought they were very unselfish,” he said. “They moved the ball around, especially when we were fresh.”

Much of the Lady Saints’ fatigue could have been the result of their high-pressure defense that gave Central Private fits all afternoon.

Trinity Episcopal School’s Rosie Woods steals the ball from Lauren West during their game at Adams County Christian School Tuesday afternoon. (Eric Shelton \ The Natchez Democrat)

Spears said his girls understand that they will have to play at a high level of intensity defensively all season, and they will need to work on conditioning as the season goes along.

“We definitely have to get in better shape,” he said. “They know (pressure defense) is what they have to do. It’s what I’ve been doing since I’ve been at Trinity.”

Trinity jumped on top of Central Private early in the game and led 30-5 at the half. That lead was enough to give the Lady Saints a comfortable win, even though they only outscored Central Private by one point in the second half.

Abbey Ashmore led Trinity offensively as the only double-digit scorer in the contest. She finished the game with 12 points. Gabby Knight fell just one point shy of double digits and was the Lady Saints’ second-leading scorer. Margaret Ward added seven points of her own for Trinity.

Spears said his team has a long way to go this season, but he was glad to finally get them out on the floor for the first time.

“We have a lot of work to do, but it’s good to play somebody besides yourself,” he said.

Trinity will take the floor again Saturday against Tallulah.