Big Sandy basketball girls played well defensively, slowing Leggett on their way to a 45-18 win Friday.
The Lady Cats were accurate from long range to open the game, hitting four 3-pointers in the first period. Paige Cox, Kaiyah Abbey and Macelynn Clark led the team through the first half, where the Lady Cats held a 20-11 difference.
Leggett struggled with the Big Sandy defense that cut off driving lanes and did a good job on the boards. The Lady Pirates never scored more than six in a quarter.
“Tonight, I told the girls that, personally, I'm not happy with myself coaching, getting a (technical foul) and everything,” Leggett coach Terri Barlow said. “More than anything, I'm not happy with the way we all performed tonight. We're a better team than that.”
Barlow said her team has done a good job pushing the ball down the court and executing off fast breaks. She said her team can compete for district if they will put in the work.
“You can't stand around and play offense,” Barlow said. “Tonight, there was a lot of standing around. We still have to work on defense. We weren't getting back as good. We didn't do any talking on the floor tonight. We still have some improvement, but tonight wasn't a good game.”
The Lady Cat defensive plan worked to make each possession difficult.
“We prepared and practiced yesterday, and watched a little bit of film,” Big Sandy coach Ryan Alec said. “Their guard play is really good. They've got three pretty good guards. Their best player is their point guard (Bianca Perkins). We really focused on pushing her to her weakside hand. The film we had on her, she was always going to the right side, so we wanted to make her uncomfortable. I thought we did a good job of that. It was the same thing with the other guards (Priscilla Henderson) and (Minneah Williams). We pushed (Henderson) to her left side and (Williams) to her right side.”
Scoring 17 in the final period, the Lady Cats built a comfortable advantage for the closing minutes.
“Our goal was to disrupt their offense, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that,” Alec said. “Credit to the girls, they work hard and we're down one with an injury right now. The next person has to step up and elevate their game.”
Shanaya Pancho, one of the Lady Cats’ top scorers and shooters, was sidelined Friday. The coach said they are optimistic about getting her back on the court soon.
Cox led Big Sandy with 19 points. Clark scored 10, Kaiyah Abbey hit three 3-pointers, and Amberlee Smith had six in the fourth quarter. For Leggett, Bianca Perkins had nine points.
The loss pushes Leggett to 3-2 on the year, with wins over Centerville, Laneville and Corrigan-Camden.
“We lost a tough one against New Waverly, who is a good team,” Barlow said. “We've been playing good ball. Even though New Waverly is a good team, we still played a lot better than this here.”
