Defense is key
Published 12:01 am Thursday, December 13, 2012
Straughn’s varsity girls will face their first true home court test of the season tonight as the Lady Tigers host Enterprise in regular season action.
Tonight’s game will be the second time these two teams will have met this season. Straughn beat Enterprise 39-38 in a defensive effort on Nov. 27.
The Lady Tigers stand at 8-1 this season after they routed Pleasant Home on Tuesday night. Enterprise is 5-4.
The only loss for SHS came against Class 4A St. James in its first game of the season.
“(The St. James game) was our first true road game for us,” SHS coach Scott Kinsaul said. “(Enterprise) was our second road game for us. When you get used to playing your B-team girls versus varsity, you get to a routine.
“When we played them, we had ninth grade girls and varsity girls,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a different routine than we’re used to, but we found a way to win.”
Kinsaul said the one-point win over the Lady Wildcats came as a result of rebounding and playing defense well.
Enterprise will present an athletic and small look for the Lady Tigers tonight, Kinsaul said.
“They’re real physical and real fast,” he said. “It’s kind of a team, win or lose, it does us good to play them.”
In fact, Class 6A Enterprise is the highest classification school Straughn has on its schedule.
Defense from the start of the game will be a big key as it always is every game, Kinsaul said.
“All our games we want to concentrate on defense first,” he said. “We always work on defense first at practice.”
Whether or not this will become a new rivalry for the Lady Tigers remains to be seen.
“It’s just a good game that we’ve tried to pick up to help our girls face faster teams than what we’ve been playing,” Kinsaul said. “That’s what we’ve had trouble with in the past. We want to see faster teams than we have in the past.”
Tip off today starts at 4:30 p.m. with the ninth-grade girls. Varsity will play its game as soon as the ninth-grade game ends.