By T. Scott Boatirght
A good lesson learned at a good time.
That was the overall assessment by Ruston High School girls basketball coach Meredith Graf after directing her team to a 61-53 win over Ouachita Parish Tuesday night inside Scott Robertson Memorial Gym on the Louisiana Tech University campus.
Graf was simply glad to see her team earn the win on a night she admitted they didn’t shoot very well.
“If we’re not shooting well, we have to be able to do other things like get second chances and not have silly mistakes on box-outs,” Graf said. “Those things are what help you overcome a poor shooting night.”
The Lady Bearcats led 15-7 at the end of the opening stanza before taking their biggest lead of the first half at 14 points on a Jaliyah McWain layup with nine seconds remaining in the second quarter that sent Ruston into the locker room on top 33-19 at halftime.
Ruston pushed its lead to 16 points at 35-19 only 20 seconds into into the third quarter on a long jumper by McWain but then the inevitable happened as the Lady Lions slowly chipped away at the RHS lead, cutting it down to two points at 45-43 on a McKenna Cooley free throw with 6.4 seconds left in the period.
And the Lady Lions tied things up at 49-49 with 5:16 left on the clock on a Cooley 3-pointer before Ruston went on an 8-0 run to move back out in front by eight at 57-49 on a pair of free throws by A’Nyia Moore with 1:50 remaining.
“That team (Ouachita) is always dangerous,” Graf said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re up by 20 or up by six, they’re always within striking distance. Our girls were aware of that. They knew. So they held on and overcame it even though we weren’t shooting that well. Certainly not as well as we did the first time when we won big at Ouachita.”
Ruston’s pressure defense helped the Lady Bearcats win the first half. It was an adjustment they made that helped win the second.
“Ouachita started bleeding somebody back and putting two back,” Graf said. “We thought about shortening it up but chose not to because of some foul and position stuff that we were looking at.
“Sometimes once a team has gotten a good look at your press, and we had already played them, they kind of get a rhythm and figure it out, so we decided to get out of it.”
But while the Lady Bearcats adjusted in that case, they stuck with their game plan for the most part.
“However things are going, we really just stick to our principles, and that;s go until you’re stopped,” Graf said. “And that’s our big principle. We preach a lot of kick-ups — pass the ball and look to attack and Jaliyah is usually the one kicking it up.”
McWain led the Lady Bearcats with 24 points while Moore and Zacchea Jackson added eight each for RHS.
“We didn’t play our best but still got the win,” Graf said. “This was a good time for that to happen — to remember heading into the playoffs that you’ve got to overcome adversity to accomplish your goals. It was a good time to be reminded of that.”
Cooley led the Lady Lions with 21 points on the night.
Next up for the Lady Bearcats (21-7, 5-0 in District 2-5A) will be the regular season finale against West Monroe at home on Friday.
