In a dominating and familiar fashion, the Levelland Loboettes are 1-0 after defeating the Big Spring Lady Steers, 58-9, Friday on the road in their district opener.
Improving to 21-3 on the season, this year’s Loboette squad has continued to live up to Head Coach Clay Barnett’s standard of dominant defense.
“Going on the road and getting a district win is always good,” said Coach Barnett. “Sometimes they are easier than others, but the main thing is you get the win. It was good to travel over there and get one under our belt for sure” Starting off slow on the offensive side of the ball, the Loboettes applied pressure to the Lady Steers for four quarters.
“We were doing a lot of good things; forcing them to turn over a ton, but we just couldn’t put it in the hole you,” explained Coach Barnett. “I think we turned them over 40 something times, whether that was self-inflicted on their part and or us, but we just didn’t turn them into points like we probably need to.”
The Loboettes would take a 10-0 lead over the Lady Steers in the first and go into the locker room with a 24-0 lead at the half.
“The good thing is they just kept playing defense and kept giving themselves opportunities and we eventually got into the double-digits and extended the lead,” said Coach Barnett.
Carrying their momentum into the second half of the district opener, the Loboettes went to work offensively and took a commanding 45-5 lead.
The Lady Steers would be held scoreless until the third quarter with five minutes to spare. A deep three pointer from the top of the key from Big Spring’s Emily Carreon kept the shut out from happening.
Impressed with his squad’s ability to keep fighting in the second half, Coach Barnett felt that he got nothing but his team’s best effort across the board.
“That’s for sure something that we talked about is continuous effort and coming back out to play four quarters,” said Coach Barnett. “Sometimes you talk about it in locker room, and they go out there and don’t do what you tell them to do and go through the motions. However, I thought this group came out in the second half and flew around, still battled and that’s what we’re going to need for future games.”
Closing out the game and even through the beginning stages of the contest, Coach Barnett was not shy of utilizing his entire bench and getting players minutes if it meant the Loboettes would be successful.
“I probably wouldn’t have played as many girls if I didn’t feel comfortable about them getting after it defensively,” explained Coach Barnett. “They got out there, battled, went after loose balls, got deflections, steals, and rebounded a little bit. I felt good about the intensity and the effort never really dropped off.”
Offensively, the Loboettes iced the game with the help of Sophomore Guard Emery Smith as she had an impressive outing from the three-point-line. Finishing the game with five three-pointers and 19 points Smith led the Loboettes against the Lady Steers defense.
“Emery getting hot toward the second half was good because we needed somebody to step up and start knocking down some shots,” said Coach Barnett. “She kept her head up when she missed and kept putting up the shots that she needed to put up and you know eventually some started to fall.”
In addition to Smith’s performance from beyond the arc, Carley Tienda and Lelani Sanchez each had an 11-point outing in the win. Adrenna Galvin scored five points while Presley Smith added three points.
Laci White, Angelica Gonzales, Olivia Velardez, Destynii Jones all scored two points each while Madison Stafford added a single freethrow.
The Loboettes were not shy about letting loose with shooting attempts and wrapped up the game 20-of-66.
Points in the paint were at a premium against the Lady Steers as the Big Spring roster had a substantial height advantage down low.
“That was definitely one of the things that they had going for them is they had a lot of size inside,” said Coach Barnett. “We tried to get some things going inside and we missed a couple of point-blank shots there but, offensively, I would have liked to have established some things a little bit better inside.”
Getting points thanks to the Loboette defense, transition plays were frequent and successful.
“We got opportunities to take it down there in transition and move the basketball a little bit and we got the perimeter shot too,” said Coach Barnett. “However, we can’t always hang our hat on that perimeter shot and lot of times you don’t turn people over as much, so we are probably going to have to do a better job of getting the ball inside and getting somebody that can put the ball in the hole.”
The Loboettes continued district play with a home game against the Snyder Lady Tigers, Tuesday and will be hosting the Sweetwater Lady Mustangs Friday at 6:15 p.m.