Shooting for district

The Terrebonne High School girls’ basketball team doesn’t have a single senior on its 2011-12 roster.

In fact, some of the team’s contributing players aren’t even enrolled at the school yet and are still students at Houma Junior High.

But don’t let a lack of experience fool you, these gals can play, the future is bright at Terrebonne.

With one of the youngest rosters in the Tri-parish area, the Lady Tigers are using the early season as a time for growth as they look to mesh and repeat as Bayou District champions.

So far in pre-district play, the team has had some ups and downs, but has shown flashes that they’ll be one of the teams to beat when district play rolls around.

“We have freshmen coming in, scoring and dishing off the ball and just doing what they got to do,” junior forward Darian Dees said. “We’re good. Everything that we lost, we picked up with this new group. We just have to keep growing together.”

“It’s been exciting,” Terrebonne coach Gus Brown added. “The biggest thing with this particular group right here has been being able to mesh together and play together because we haven’t been together for a long time. With us being so young and inexperienced, we just need to get some games under our belt.”

A typical game for the Lady Tigers is a bit unpredictable, and that’s saying the least.

There are flashes of brilliance.

Terrebonne rolled to a fast start to the season, winning six of their first nine games, including wins against H.L. Bourgeois, E.D. White and Ursuline Academy.

The Lady Tigers even posted a solid showing for part of last Tuesday’s game against defending Class 3A State Champion St. James.

The Lady Tigers controlled the tempo early and held a lead throughout most of the first half.

They did so by playing both inside and out with the guard-forward combo of juniors Raina Diggs and Darian Dees, two of the team’s most experienced players, both playing huge roles on last year’s district championship team.

The team has six juniors total to compliment a slew of sophomores and freshmen. Those numbers are vital, according to Brown, who said he leans on his elder stateswomen to keep the younger players comfortable.

“The upperclassmen have welcomed the newer kids into the program, even though some of them are on another campus,” Brown said. “They’ve welcomed them in and we’ve been working together since Day 1.”

But chemistry isn’t born overnight and Terrebonne has its share of troubles sometimes on the floor, as well.

Take the St. James game for example.

The Lady Tigers had countless turnovers in their high-paced offense, several of which led to easy baskets for the Lady Wildcats, giving them control of the game and ultimately victory.

“It’s always something different,” Dees said. “Not meeting the ball, making bad passes. Decisions. That’s the reason for the turnovers. It’s not our speed. It’s our decisions.”

Brown agreed with Dees and said the speed of the game isn’t giving problems to his team, emphasizing that the turnovers are a product of youthful players sometimes trying to do too much in their new surroundings.

“We’re going to keep running,” Brown said. “The biggest thing is just to make sure we do it under control. And then from there to manage the game a whole lot better toward the end of each period.”

But offensive struggles aren’t the only areas where inexperience sometimes shows for Terrebonne.

Against St. James, the Lady Tigers struggled to stay away from fouls inside of their full-court pressure defense.

Committing costly fouls had Dees and Diggs in foul trouble for a lot of the game and it also put St. James at the free-throw line more than 30 times.

“That cost us the game,” Dees said. “We sent them to the line too much. They had 32 free throws and made 22. They won by 5. We’re fouling too much.”

Freshman Tyraneeka Howard said the easiest way to avoid similar problems in the future is to better control the glass.

“We need to box out more,” Howard said. “If we can control the glass, we wouldn’t have to foul as often as we do.”

Regardless of the growing pains, Terrebonne believes it can fix its issues and make a run at another district championship.

The Lady Tigers have already beaten one district foe in the preseason and show flashes that they’ll be hungry for more.

With a little more seasoning, they believe they just might find the winning recipe for another district championship.

If they stay united and embrace their struggles together, that is.

“We just have to keep our teammates positive,” Dees said. “We have to motivate each other instead of getting down on each other when it comes to district time. Everyone wants what we had last year. We had to play as a team to get there then. We’re going to have to play as a team to get there now.”

“We need to be on the same page,” Brown said. “Not only on the same page, but on the same line and the same word on that page. Sometimes we’re on the same page, but we’re reading different lines. We get to where we’re on the same word on the same line, we’ll be OK.

“The talent’s there. These kids can be special.”

Terrebonne High School guard Tyraneeka Howard glides through the air for a layup. Without a senior on its roster, Terrebonne is overcoming inexperience to make a push at winning the Bayou District for the second-straight season. CASEY GISCLAIR