Livingston girls basketball used defense and points off turnovers to secure their third win of the season 55-24 Tuesday over Class 5A Nederland in Lion Gym.
The Lady Lions had 22 steals in the game with a trap defense that pestered Nederland ball handlers all night. It helped create 22 points off turnovers.
Nariya Johnson led the team with 29 points, shooting 12-for-14 from the floor, including 4-for-5 from 3-point range. Regan Lewis scored 13 and had 11 rebounds. Each of the two girls had six steals. Corinne Henderson added nine points.
Nederland struggled all night versus a quick defense. They committed 35 turnovers and shot just 20% from the field.
New coach Edward Hawkins credited Livingston’s success to recent bracket games in Baytown.
“I think that being in the tournaments that we just came from, seeing some good competition, really kind of got them ready to play today,” Hawkins said. “In the tournament, we got a chance to see a lot of pressure. Other teams have been the aggressor, and tonight was just an opportunity for us to get back to being the aggressor.”
With a tough schedule that has included some larger schools, Livingston has a 3-3 record to this point. In a tournament last week they played Bellaire, Lufkin and Baytown Lee. The coach is hoping to build his group by playing bigger and faster opponents.
“It's actually going pretty good,” Hawkins said. “I know the record says one thing, but the girls are buying in. That's one of the things I challenged them with is the competitive schedule, being able to go out and see some of that competition. So, it's just building steps for district. We’ve still got a lot of things that we need to work on, but the little things that we're focusing on, the attention to detail, I can see it out there.”
The Lady Bulldogs never scored more than nine in a quarter. They did force 23 turnovers themselves, yet scored just two points off that total.
“Our strength right now is defensive pressure, not allowing teams to just walk it up. You're going have to work as a unit to get it down. I’d also say our inside presence is one of our strengths. We need to work on just being able to feed at different angles, also, just taking care of the ball, and not just giving it back to them. Those are things that from game one to now, are getting better, but not to where we want it to be.”
