Tuesday, Nov. 30
November 30, 2010
HPD reaches out to area’s needy with food boxes
December 2, 2010
There aren’t many familiar faces on the Terrebonne girl’s basketball team this season.
Gone is Alaina Verdin, who averaged 20 points per game last season.
Also gone is Sierra Lyons, who cleaned up the paint and averaged 13 points and seven rebounds per game last season.
And to top it all off, the Lady Tigers also lost coach Greg Knox, who retired from the school board in May.
Those three things combined have many people expecting the Terrebonne girls basketball team to take a step back this year.
That’s just fine with them n that’s what they want people to think.
With the season in its early stages, the Lady Tigers are eager to shun their doubters away and show they can keep their winning ways alive despite the new faces on both the court and the bench in 2010-11.
“We feel like we’re underdogs,” senior Temitris Bryant said. “Everybody’s doubting us since we lost our two top players from last year. Nobody thinks we’re going to make it back, but we’re going to prove everybody wrong.”
According to Terrebonne associate head coach Allison Betts, who will share the coaching duties this season with Gus Brown, the way the Lady Tigers will make up for the duo’s departure comes in four steps.
Step one is in the paint. Lyons was the all-time leading rebounder in Terrebonne school history. With less big bodies on the roster this year, Betts said the Lady Tigers will need to crash the glass to keep opponents off the offensive glass.
Bryant agreed and said she knows Lyons’ rebounding will never be replaced by any one player. But if all five Lady Tigers pool their attention inside, they can probably fill the void.
“We have a lot of guards and not that many post players, so we’re trying to work the inside,” Bryant said. “We’re trying to get everybody to help out around the paint.”
Step two will be tempo. Once Terrebonne does secure the rebound, they will get out and run in transition. That’s a change from the team’s pace last season when Terrebonne enjoyed a slower-paced game because they didn’t think Lyons and Verdin could easily be beaten in an inside/outside halfcourt game.
“Run, pressure and play a little defense,” Betts said. “We’re looking for our defense to start our offense. We don’t have any go-to scorers, so we’re looking to play as a team and do the little things like passing the ball, and then getting up the floor quick.”
And the coach’s final step is balance. Verdin and Lyons combined to average 34 points per game n a total that will not likely be replaced by any two Lady Tigers this year.
This year, Betts likens Terrebonne to 12-piece jigsaw puzzle with each piece of the puzzle holding equal value to the Lady Tigers’ success.
“The girls are stepping up to the plate and they understand their roles,” Betts said. “Everybody’s a piece to the puzzle and we need each piece to put it together. They’re buying into the team thing and are just accepting their roles and are doing it.”
The fourth step wasn’t touched upon by Betts, but rather by her players: leadership.
Lyons and Verdin aren’t available on the floor. But the lessons they taught as leaders are still very prevalent in the Terrebonne locker room, according to senior Brittany Spotts, who is one of two seniors on the team.
“In practice, we try to make the new girls work hard like the seniors did to us last year,” she said. “They’re getting it together.”
The team’s other senior, Bryant, agreed and added she’s made it a point to be more vocal to keep everyone in high spirits no matter what’s happening on the floor.
“I’m just trying to motivate my team and not let them get down, because when we do bad, everybody gets frustrated,” she said. “I just tell them to just keep working hard and everything will follow through.”
Things “followed through” just fine last Wednesday when the Lady Tigers unveiled their four-step plan with unquestioned success last Wednesday at the Terrebonne Parish Jamboree.
Terrebonne scored a 26-2 win against South Terrebonne in their first game, before topping traditional power Ellender 16-15 in their second game.
The team carried that momentum into the season opener and beat Lusher 50-15.
“I’m excited. The girls are excited, so when you have everybody on that one page, it’s excellent,” Betts said. “Everyone is on a high right now. We just want to stay there.”
And although everyone admits some bumps in the road are still ahead, the message remains the same: don’t count out Terrebonne just because their roster is a little different than it was before.
“We know what they’re saying,” Bryant said. “It’s just our job to make sure they’re not saying it anymore at the end of the season.”
Terrebonne sophomore forward Darian Dees attempts a shot in traffic during the jamboree. Dees is one of the Lady Tigers being counted on to replace Sierra Lyons and she responded by scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in the season opener. FILE PHOTO
