The girls basketball team will play its final district home game against Braswell on Jan. 31 at 5:45 p.m. in the arena. The Lady Hawks will also be celebrating teacher appreciation appreciation night.
“We’ll parade [our teachers] out just to show a token of our appreciation,” head coach Lisa Branch said. “They do so much for us throughout the year, and it’s just one night for us to get to celebrate those teachers. [It’s also the seniors’] last chance to play here in front of their home crowd, so hopefully we can make it special for them.”
The Lady Hawks have an overall record of 10-18 while being ranked seventh in the district. From the 18 losses, 10 have been to top ranked teams in the state. The last time the team played against Braswell on Jan. 7, they lost 53-37. Braswell is ranked second in the state with an overall record of 30-2.
“This season has been a roller coaster ride,” Branch said. “We’ve played some great competition. If we can take care of the ball, then we give ourselves a chance to win this game. They’ve got some size on us, but rebounding is mentality and that’s effort. If you give that effort and you go in there and you battle with them again, to compete with them, they’re not going to live with that.”
With only two seniors, the Lady Hawks have an underclassmen-heavy team. Guard Sydnee Jones said that adjusting to the players they lost last year has been an ongoing struggle.
“We’re still missing some of that massive height [and speed] that we used to [have,]” Jones said. “It took us quite some time to adjust, but as we’ve [been] coming down to the end of our district season, we’ve meshed well [with] this newer group compared to our last groups. Braswell is a really good team, and as long as we play how we’ve been playing recently, it’ll be a fun game, win or lose.”
The Lady Hawks have been changing their rotation to give younger players a chance as the team hasn’t had as many injuries this season compared to previous years.
“We didn’t know how this season was going to go,” guard Monet Brown said. “The last few years have been planned out because we had [the] same girls, but this year was a completely new group. Just learning everyone again was a challenge.”
Last season, the Lady Hawks went undefeated in district and finished in first place. With this year’s district realignment, this season has been filled with higher-ranked opponents for the team.
“The young team that we have this year [has] taken a toll on us,” Branch said. “We can’t measure this year by wins and losses, but how we competed. On a competition platform, I’m thrilled about it; as far as the wins and losses, not so much, but it definitely helped. It helped us build team chemistry — build that camaraderie.”
