RISON - The Rison Lady Wildcats opened 8-2A conference play with a 45-29 victory over the Gurdon Lady Go Devils Tuesday night at the Rison Gym, marking their sixth straight win.
Rison started slow before hitting its stride in the second quarter. Leading 5-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady 'Cats scored 16 in both the the second and third quarters to open up a 37-14 lead by the start of the fourth.
Rison improved to 1-0 in conference play and 8-3 overall with the win.
While he was satisfied with the win, Lady Wildcat Coach Seth Taylor said they still have some room for improvement, especially with becoming more consistent.
Tuesday night's game was a case in point, Taylor said, noting that the Lady 'Cats managed just five points in the first quarter before responding with 16 in each of the next two periods. "We have not played four quarters of basketball," he said.
Taylor did praise the balanced scoring he has seen so far this season.
For example, he pointed out that Rison's leading scorer, Destiny Lea, was struggling to get much going in Tuesday night's game. However, as has been the case for much of this season, someone else stepped up.
"We've been playing 12 girls a night," Taylor said. "When you can play all 12, you're doing whatever you can." A glance at the Rison scorebook showed no one scoring in double digits against Gurdon. It did, however, show nine players who scored.
Layne Potter knocked down three of Rison's five 3-pointers in the game to finish with nine. Alysia Walker, who also had a trey, followed with seven while Brianna Ferrell had six and Lea, Ladrea Hamilton and Chamira Crain all had five apiece. Hamilton had the other 3-pointer for Rison.
The strong start for the Lady 'Cats has not gone unnoticed. The Arkansas Sports Network had Rison ranked no. 10 in its Class 2A girls poll that was released this week on the network's Facebook page.
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