The Russell County Lakers and Lady Lakers opened their seasons last night against Taylor County at Laker Gym.
In the first game, the Lady Lakers fell short by a score of 38-24.
Lady Laker Head Coach Brett Blankenship pointed to his team’s youth following the game.
“We’re just really young, honestly,” Blankenship said. “They returned everybody and have several seniors, and we’re playing eighth graders and freshmen. We just made a lot of young mistakes.”
The Lady Lakers were without senior Star Marcum Tuesday night, who missed the game because of an undisclosed reason. Marcum was the leading scorer on last year’s squad, averaging around 15 points per game while also averaging nearly 10 rebounds.
The Lady Lakers were without junior Sophie Shearer as well, who averaged about 6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last year. Blankenship said he expects Shearer to be back with the team on Friday when the team opens district play at Clinton County.
It was just one of those nights where the shots weren’t falling, Blankenship said.
“We have to make shots when we’re open,” he said. “But we took some good shots, they just didn’t fall for us.”
The Lakers shot 7-32 from the floor, including 3-25 from the three-point line.
The Lady Lakers struggled to get good looks inside though, and that’s something Blankenship said they’re going to be working on moving forward.
And Blankenship said a lot can be attributed to first-game jitters, particularly for the younger players.
“A lot of jitters for sure,” Blankenship said. “[Senior] Juliah [Bault] is the only one who has done this steadily and she can’t do everything, especially when we’re not making shots but they’ll get it out of them and we’ll learn and grow and be fine moving forward.”
Bault led the Lady Lakers in scoring with 10 points. Mallory Ferguson added 6 points and Rachel Bolin added 5. Maleah Preston and Kenzie Kelsey got into the scoring column with 2 points and 1 point, respectively.
Moving forward, Blankenship said he saw some positives to build off of defensively. The key will be improving on offense where the Lady Lakers were only able to put up 24 points.
“We didn’t give up a lot,” Blankenship said. “We gave up some easy ones late just because of the situation we were in and the product of having an off night offensively. We’ll get better on offense.”
Hannah Yates led the team in rebounds with five, followed by Bault with four. Preston and Bolin added three rebounds each.
The Lady Lakers are back in action on Friday against district rival Clinton County. That game is scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m.
The boys defeated Taylor County 58-54.
The Lakers picked up a win to open their season, knocking off the Taylor County Cardinals.
Three Lakers scored in double figures, led by Jay Milburn with 16, Scott Hamm with 15, and Devonte Grayson with 13.
After the game, Lakers Head Coach Billy Carson specifically mentioned Grayson for his performance.
“Devonte changes the dynamic of our team,” Carson said. “He’s a big guy and people just look at him as a big post guy, but he’s agile and he’s quick. He brings a different dimension to our team and I’m really proud of the way he performed tonight.”
Senior Clay Anderson provided a spark off the bench, knocking down two three-pointers and finishing with nine points.
Grayson led the team in rebounding with nine, followed by Milburn with eight, and Hamm with 6.
Milburn put forth a strong defensive effort, blocking four shots and recording two steals.
On the night, the Lakers shot 61 percent from the floor and outrebounded the Cardinals 36-22.
The Lakers trailed at the half but were able to put together a strong performance coming out of halftime in the third quarter to gain control. Carson said he was pleased with the way his team responded to adversity early.
“We have this mantra that we have to handle adversity together,” Carson said. “Bad things will happen, but it’s how you respond. We got down early, but nobody sulked. We had some sloppy play, but they kept at it and chipped away and then we got going a little bit in the third quarter.”
Playing in their first game of the season, the Lakers struggled with turnovers, turning the ball over 23 times.
“We played a little sloppy and there were some things I wasn’t happy about, but you just gotta look at it as getting the win,” Carson said. “The things we did wrong are easily fixable, so all we can do is get back in the gym and work on those things.”
In a season where nothing is given and the status of games seems to be a day-to-day thing, Carson said he was thankful to be able to get out on the floor and was really glad the players were able to start their season.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, but that’s every year,” Carson said. “For some reason, I’m just antsy before the first game. This was a different antsy because I want these kids to play and play well. It has nothing to do with me, it’s about them. We could’ve woken up today and the game be cancelled, but I was glad to get back out here. It got us back to some normalcy and it was really good to see the kids playing and having fun.”
The Lakers will travel to Clinton County Friday for a district opener with the Bulldogs. That game will begin following the girl’s game.
