Defense smacks Spartans in district opener
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley Back It In Chantel Cook looks up and behind her to see if she can make a basket against a Seven Lakes defender.

A great pre-district record did not disappoint Friday night. After starting the basketball season 17-3, the Lady Ricebirds opened up district basketball play with a 48-28 win over Seven Lakes.

The team was excited with the win after the game. Senior guard Kela Johnson said the 1-0 start is great, but the team has its goal set for greater accomplish- ments.

"That's really

"That's really good because we haven't done good (in the past)," Johnson said. "In the last four years that I've been on varsity, we haven't done anything. This year, our record is great and we're trying to make it to the playoffs.

"Hopefully we will. We think we will. I'd love to make it. Especially in my last year at school too. I would love to make the playoffs."

If El Campo makes the post season, it will be with its signature speedy full-court defense that forces many turnovers for opponents.

L-N Photo by Kris Bagley It's Mine Clydet Bullock competes for a loose ball with a Spartan.

As a guard in the Lady 'Birds system, Johnson works to frustrate the opposing guards and cause poor decisions that result in several steals. Johnson finished the night with five steals herself, but caused many more as El Campo finished with 38 total takeaways.

"Our primary focus, we'll spend at least 60 percent of our practice time on defense-related drills," El Campo Head Coach Noma Kremling said. "Offense requires a tremendous amount of finesse and poise and that's not our strength. Our strength is just get up and get after it. We try to play to the potential strengths that we have as a team, so we spend a great deal of time on our defense."

One of El Campo's major strengths this year is its guard play.

Frequently in the Seven Lakes games, the Lady 'Birds caught the Spartan guards in a trap that led to a few breakaway baskets for El Campo.

"When you have someone like Kela Johnson or Chelsi Robinson all over your ball handlers all night long, it gets very frustrating," Kremling said. "I'm trying to make them understand that, 'You're job is not to steal the ball. You're job is to make that girl so nervous and so frustrated that she throws a bad pass and one of your teammates will get that steal resulting from your great defense.'

Kela Johnson

"It just wears the other team down when you're just constantly, constantly in their shirt. You're constantly all over them and constantly, they know there's not a second to breathe. It just wears them down."

By halftime, that's exactly what Seven Lakes was. The Lady 'Birds capitalized on a few extra possessions to take a 24-8 lead moving into the third quarter.

By the end of the third, El Campo led 28-18 and finally finished with a 48-28 victory.

Despite the 20-point win, the Lady 'Birds had a few odd statistics. They were actually out rebounded 47-31, which gave Seven Lakes four extra baskets on offensive boards, and they shot a low 33 percent from the floor.

"Some nights we shoot well and some nights we don't shoot well," Kremling said. "I was very disappointed in the shots that we missed because I did not see us being fouled. I did not see anything except that we failed to make the basket and we have to do a better job at that.

"Sometimes some areas are good one night and some areas are not so good. That was just one of the areas, but they played well in other areas to make up for that."

The Lady 'Birds had more success with offensive rebounds than with defensive. Most of the missed baskets were picked up by El Campo's post players and put back in for secondchance shots.

"I thought the girls went after that rebound, it's just that we couldn't put it into the basket," Kremling said. "They went after it again and again. We just want to get that easy score so we can change the scoreboard to show how hard we worked."

El Campo's 1-0 start puts them in a tie for first with Lamar Consolidated and Bay City. From the beginning of the season, Terry was considered to be more of a threat to El Campo's playoff hopes, but after a loss to the Lady Blackcats, El Campo will need to take notice of every team because of the amount of parody in the district.

"I am not taking anybody lightly," Kremling said. "Bay City plays hard. They have a player that averages 20 plus points a game and we've had trouble with her every year. No matter how tightly we guard her, she just pulls up and shoots a little jump shot. She's not but about 5-foot-4, but we have trouble with her.

"I never take Foster lightly. I don't care that they graduated most of their kids last year. They are shooting lights out from the 3-point line and that can be hard to stop. I'm taking every game as though, 'This is a must-win situation. We've got to be prepared. We're not looking ahead to anybody. We're playing one game at a time.'"

LADY 'BIRD STATS

El Campo 48, Seven Lakes 28

1st 2nd 3rd			4th	F
EC 11	13	10	14	- 48
SL 6	2	10	10	- 28

EC Leaders

POINTS -Aslhey Brooks 14, Chelsi Robinson 7, Angel Brooks 6, Ashley Thomas 5, Ebonee Spencer 5, Chantel Cook 4

REBOUNDS - As. Brooks 9, Spencer 8, An. Brooks 7

STEALS - As. Brooks 11, An. Brooks 9, Kela Johnson 5, Chelsi Robinson 5

ASSISTS - Ashley Thomas 4