Senior Tiera McFalls guards an opposing player during the Mineral County High girls basketball team’s 56-16 win against the Excel Christian Warriors. (C.W. Wilkinson photo)
The Mineral County High girls basketball team easily defeated the Excel Christian Warriors in what amounted to an exhibition game at home on Jan. 4.
The score was 56-16.
The Lady Serpents, undefeated in conference play, squared off against an Excel junior varsity team because of a scheduling error, said Foster Kenton, Lady Serpents’ coach.
“Because of the way our schedule is set up we don’t have a lot of games scheduled, so I went ahead and played a varsity game against a JV team because I needed some court time, I needed some practice,” Kenton said.
Kenton said he doesn’t think the game will count on Mineral County’s perfect conference record.
He also said the game was mostly practice for his squad.
“There’s not much we did,” Kenton said. “We just sort of worked on our offense and executed it well. Worked on our fast break.”
While the team has smoothed out many of the wrinkles in its complex motion offense, Kenton said the area he’s happiest to see improvement is in the defense, which has been a focus for him. The team has worked hard to master the full court press, and the pressure was heavy on the Warrior all game long.
“They’re understanding the offense, the defense is working well now,” Kenton said. “We’ve just got to sort of fine tune things, and get the girls on the same page. And I think that’s going to come.”
Kenton said the focus in practice will now move to fundamentals.
With the offense and defense are starting to crystallize for the Serpents, Kenton said, and he had high hopes for his team going into the Jan. 7 contest against Pyramid Lake.
“It’s a big conference game, it’s going to be a showdown,” Kenton said. “I know my girls are ready. They’re improving every single day.”
