By Kyle Roberts
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Ruston High’s Lady Bearcats (5-7) won both games played over the weekend at the Alexandria Senior High Holiday Classic, beating Montgomery first on Friday 59-26 and then Pitkin on Saturday 59-38.
Ruston High head coach LaShanda Cooper credited her team’s ability to get out to a good start in the opening day win over Montgomery. The Lady Bearcats started red hot, scoring 43 of their 59 points through the first two quarters. Both senior Kiersynce McNeal and sophomore Gioia Tatum scored 13 points apiece, while senior Samiya Lewis added 12 points.
“The main thing we try to stress to them is that we don’t want them to get off to a slow start,” Cooper said. “We need them to be aggressive and play hard at the tip. A lot of games we’ve played this year, we kind of got off to a slow start, and then we’re trying to pick it back up. We’re reinforcing into them that they need to start playing hard as soon as the game starts.
“For that game, the chemisty was there, and everybody played hard from the beginning. We made a couple of defensive adjustments and just came out ready to play.”
Ruston’s game against Pitkin was a more physical affair. After scoring only 21 points in the first half and trailing by as many as 13 points early, the Lady Bearcats used a 26-point third quarter to help seal the win. Tatum led the team with 16 points, while McNeal added 15.
“We stressed to them that when you play smaller schools, they’re going to play really, really fast and really, really hard,” Cooper said. “Some of these B and C classification schools play with an edge and want to show up a 5A school. I didn’t want us going into the game taking them lightly. We got punched in the mouth early — we missed some defensive assignments. Once we found the defense that made them uncomfortable, we became a little bit more aggressive.
“Gioia (Tatum) hit some big shots for us, and she’s playing with a lot of confidence right now. We’re trying to get them to believe in themselves. Sometimes they’ll look at me and ask if it was a good shot or a bad shot — and I just tell them if they don’t hear us say anything, then keep shooting. Once the confidence and chemistry kicks in, they’ll be in a really good place.”
The Lady Bearcats have now won three of their last four games heading into the New Year.
Ruston will return to action at the Benton Tournament this weekend to take on Captain Shreve Thursday and then Plain Dealing on Friday.
