Victory comes more smoothly for Lady Cats

SA Times - This is the basketball team Jan Wakefield thought she had. Shaking off a rough season-opening outing Saturday in which the Lady Cats barely escaped with a two-point win over Lamesa, the Central High School girls looked much more dominant in their second outing, a 56-31 victory over Sweetwater on Tuesday night.

"That was the picture I had envisioned. I'm very pleased," Wakefield said. "I thought we showed great strides from three days ago." Lyric Ross led the way for Central with 22 points, and Sam Graves added 12 as the Lady Cats dominated most phases of the game, especially anything near the basket. "We knew they were going to come out in a 2-2-1 zone, and I thought we attacked it very well," Wakefield said. "Defensively, we were all over the boards. We rotated better. Our press was more effective." Even free-throw-shooting, which had so plagued the Lady Cats on Saturday, went well Tuesday. They were 4-of-4 from the line. Sweetwater's Dedra Brown led the charge for the Lady Mustangs with 11 points, but the Lady Cats were too much.

The Lady Cats (2-0) looked comfortable in everything they tried to do Tuesday, something that seemed to be lacking in the opener. That might be understandable as four Lady Cats were making their first varsity starts Saturday. "In this one I felt a lot more comfortable," said Central guard Allison Lipsohn, who scored nine points. "Saturday I felt really nervous. We were shaky." Not anymore. Central starters Ross and Ashley Dyches are just getting the feel of basketball after joining the team last week, fresh off volleyball season. "We only had one practice before our first scrimmage, but the coaches were patient with us," said Dyches, who scored eight points Tuesday. "I think we were just ready tonight. "The big key was our defense. We worked really hard on half-court trap and full-court press, and I think we really executed. On offense we really just looked for the open people and were patient." More often than not, the open person was Ross, who found a mismatch with whoever Sweetwater (1-2) tried to put on her. Wakefield liked seeing Ross being so active offensively. "She only shot the ball five times Saturday," Wakefield said of Ross. "Moving her out to the guard position (from forward where she played last year), we told her she had to be more aggressive and I think she definitely did tonight, Hopefully that has her confidence up and she'll continue to do that. "I have to credit her teammates. They found her on cuts and reversed the ball back to her a lot. It was a great team effort."

So the Lady Cats and their fans can make it to Central's playoff football game Friday, the time of the basketball game that day has been changed. Central will play at Big Spring at 4 p.m. Friday instead of the previously published time of 6:30 p.m. In addition, next week's home game against Midland Greenwood has been changed from Monday at 6:30 p.m. to Wednesday at 3 p.m. to accomodate the Lady Rangers.