‘Sweet’ Defense Carries Lady ‘Dogs

MILTON-FREEWATER - The Lady Bulldogs played two pre-league basketball games here over the week­end, coming out on top in both with a strong defense in the first three quarters.

"Of course we can always get better," said girls coach Clayton Strong. "But our defense was pretty sweet over the weekend."

Friday night was the first game of the Oregon tourna­ment, and the girls played Mac-Hi. Dayton was up 25 points going into the fourth quarter and took the game by a score of 42-26.

"The final score wasn't indicative of how well we played in the first three quarters," Strong said. "We were able to use the fourth quarter to work on some things and give some of the younger varsity girls some floor time."

Saturday the ladies were up against Stanfield High and held them to two points for three quarters.

"This was one of the better defensive efforts I've been a part of," Strong said.

The girls were ahead 33-2 going into the fourth quarter, winning 38-12. With such a strong lead, Coach Strong was again able to play his younger team members in the fourth quarter.

The lady bulldogs have a core group of lettermen players this year, with senior Alexi Ward and juniors Sara Phillips, Lexis Ramirez, Kaitlyn Andrews, and Cait­lyn Robins.

A handful of sophomores also have varsity experi­ence, including as Madison Mings, who is returning to the varsity court after a knee injury cut her season short last year. The four remaining players are freshmen.

Learning to play a con­sistent game of basketball through all four quarters is what Coach Strong hopes to focus on this year. In their first game of the sea­son - last Tuesday against Pomeroy - the girls lost 50-26 after playing "two pretty good quarters and two quarters that were not very consistent," according to Strong.

"Part of that was the difference between game conditioning and practice conditioning, which is cor­rectable," he said. "We've made some real strides over the last few weeks."

The Lady Bulldogs play their first league game on December 20 at DeSales. Their first home league game will be against Tri- Cities Prep on December 21. The girls' games starts at 6 p.m. with the boys' games following at about 7:30.