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Girls basketball: Lady Dragons seek fourth consecutive district title
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
Southlake Carroll's girls basketball team took its final steps of preparation for the District 4-5A season during the past week when the Lady Dragons competed at the Bishop Lynch Knights of Columbus Classic, winning 1-of-3 contests to make their overall record 5-7.
It has been a bit of a learning process early for the Lady Dragons, who return just three players with varsity experience, only two of which have seen extended time.
Fortunately for Carroll, the two seasoned veterans are guards Kennedy Leonard and Kami Mickens, which has helped speed up the transition process as the team seeks its fourth consecutive district title.
"We're playing alright," said Terri Morrison, Carroll head coach. "We've played a tough schedule and are doing well, we're just struggling to finish out games right now. We have to get better at closing them out, but that can be expected a little bit when you are breaking in new kids at a lot of different places."
Back on varsity is a pair of all-district guards in Leonard and Mickens.
"Having them back has really helped the transition," Morrison said. "They do a lot on the court for us, but have also stepped up in a leadership role. But the thing is, all of our opponets know about them, too. So, they're really trying to deny them the ball and force others to step up."
Gretchen Morrison also saw a limited run on varsity last year, in particular late in the season.
Taking advantage of the increased opportunities early this year has been post Madison Drescher and guard Rebecca Gordon.
"Madison has done a great job inside for us," Morrison said. "We were negative in rebounding the first four games but now we're about even. Madison has led us so far, but Kennedy has been doing a good job on the boards as well.
"But Gordon has really been our surprise player so far. She can really shoot it."
Rounding out the Carroll guards are Savannah Nauwelaers and Lexi Smith. The rest of the Lady Dragons' frontcourt include posts Anna Hurlburt, Danielle Lepicier, Ellie Van Amerongen and Sarah Williams.
The Lady Dragons have traditionally been a strong outside shooting team and this season is no different. Carroll has converted 42 percent of its 3-point attempts to just 31 percent on 2-pointers.
"We need to make some improvements in our short game," Morrison said. "We have to make more of the easy ones, but hopefully that is something that will come with more time."
Morrison would also like to see the Lady Dragons increase their defensive pressure.
Another past strength has been ball distribution, which is again the case this season.
"We're very unselfish and have been spreading the scoring around," Morrison said. "Gretchen has led us at about 13 points per game. But Kennedy is scoring around 11 per and Madison is scoring about nine or 10. And then we've had spot players chipping in here or there. We have a lot of weapons."
Morrison is also pleased with the overall depth she has seen.
"We have the pieces, but we're still trying to fix some things," she said. "We're kind of struggling to find our identity. We're kind of living in the shadows of a wonderful team we had last year. We need to find a new light."
That could start on the defensive end.
"We have great perimeter shooters," Morrison added. "We accept that but we have to play better defense if our offense is going to based around shooting from the outside."
If Carroll continues to progress, it believes it can again compete for a district title.
"We're going to have play as a team and we have a big one right off the bat Friday against Keller Timber Creek," Morrison said. "They've been playing extremely well. Richland has been beating some solid teams too and, of course, Keller always has a strong team. Nothing is going to be given to us."
Carroll kicks off district at 6:30 p.m. Friday when it hosts Timber Creek before going on the road at the same time next Tuesday at Keller Central.
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