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Girls basketball: Lady Cougars getting healthy as district draws near
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
With District 9-4A competition less than two weeks away and his squad just now getting near full strength, The Colony girls basketball head coach Jason Weese said he would prefer to spend the upcoming week practicing in the gym.
Instead, the rigors of the non-district season will force the Lady Cougars to learn on the fly as the squad prepares for a stretch of seven games in seven days.
That span began Tuesday with a non-district contest at Hebron before competing Thursday-Saturday at the Cowtown Classic in Fort Worth and going back on the road next Tuesday against Mesquite.
"This is an important time for us," Weese said. "We need to continue to improve and do it quickly. It's kind of a new thing for us having four district games before Christmas break. So this will be big and we're excited to get going at Cowtown. There should be good teams out there."
The Lady Cougars will head to Fort Worth with a 3-4 record and have done so competing without a pair of key players.
The Colony picked up wins over Denton, Irving and Garland Naaman Forest while suffering losses against Allen, Lubbock Monterey, Princeton and Marcus.
When healthy, the Lady Cougars 14 player roster includes multiple players with varsity experience.
Back for The Colony are senior post Terra Ellison (last year's District 4-4A Offensive Player of the Year), sophomore guard-post Libby Waddell (Newcomer of the Year), senior guard Kylie Covington (first team), sophomore guard Shayla Smith, sophomore forward Taylor Holley, junior guard Brittney Oneal, sophomore guard Brooke Babcock and senior guard Haley Chapa.
"We've had three sophomores and a junior really step up in a leadership role while Terra and Kylie have been out," Weese said. "I'm extremely proud of [Waddell, Smith, Holley and Oneal]. They've done a very nice job of kind of holding us together during this early portion of the year."
Also returning for The Colony is Pypr Breuland, who played for the Lady Cougars before moving away and has since transferred back in. Fresh faces to the roster include Alexus Neal, Sara Jendruch, Randa Sloan, Alicia Warrum and Olivia Eubanks.
"I like our depth and in particular the experienced players we have," Weese said. "We have a lot of girls we can rely on, which makes it exciting. And I also really think our chemistry is going to be one of our greatest assets. The girls understand each other and what our strengths are."
Early on, those strengths include a high basketball IQ and an abundance of capable guards.
"I've really been impressed with our basketball savvy," Weese said. "They understand the game well and are able to execute and take care of the ball. We have good ball-handlers and they all see the floor well. They're very unselfish and don't take bad shots."
That won't prohibit The Colony from pulling the trigger on the perimeter, however.
"We are taking good shots and we can also shoot it well," Weese added. "That's one of our strengths and if we are open, we are going to shoot it."
While shooting is a positive, the Lady Cougars still have progress to make in other areas.
"We're getting where we need to be," Weese said. "But we need to get better in the half-court on both sides."
The squad also has to make up for a lack of size in the post.
"I still don't feel like we have a really big girl inside," Weese said. "But our guards are big. Brueland can play some inside, but we're going to have to do a great job of boxing out to win the battle of the boards. If we can do that, that will take advantage of our size and we can run a lot of our 5-out stuff."
If The Colony is able to make improvements, Weese is hopeful the Lady Cougars have a chance to compete for a playoff spot out of 9-4A.
"I've seen a lot of the district and let me tell you they're tough," he said. "It's going to be extremely challenging night in and night out. I know it sounds cliché, but we have to take it one game at a time and continue to improve."
Ellison signs
The Colony girls basketball player Terra Ellison put pen to paper on National Signing Day Nov. 14, selecting to continue her basketball career at the University of North Texas.
Ellison is a leader for the Lady Cougars and was named the District 4-4A Offensive Player of the Year last season.
"I think Terra absolutely picked the right school and is going to do a great job for North Texas," Weese said. "They have a new coach there, so it's exciting for her to be part of the first recruiting class. She's really taken off since she started here and has become one of the best players in the area."
Weese saw signs of Ellison's abilities early on.
"No question," he said. "It wasn't about the talent. She is an unbelievable athlete but she went to work for four years and has grown into an unbelievable basketball player. And it probably has more to do with the work she put in outside of school than what she did here. She spent a lot of time on her own in the gym and the weight room."
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