By T. Scott Boatright
Lincoln Prep Lady Panthers coach Lakeia Williams-Brown realized how the game would go before their opening tip of Saturday’s regular-season finale at Arcadia High School.
And she knew it would be a learning experience for her team.
When the team faced Arcadia on Jan. 8, Lincoln Prep stayed competitive in the first quarters before the Lady Hornets, who were missing a pair of key players in that contest, pulled away for a big win over the Lady Panthers.
But this time it was over before it started with Lincoln Prep’s primary weapon — junior point guard Kayla Ferguson — out due to illness as Arcadia blanked the Lady Panthers in the opening stanza en route to a 63-5 win inside the AHS Gym.
Trailing 26-0 at the end of the first quarter, the Lady Panthers did score the opening points of the second period after senior Zakyah Wimberly connected on a plus-one free throw after laying the ball up and into the basket only nine seconds into the stanza.
Lincoln Prep’s other two points after Hannah LeBron grabbed a loose ball and hit a running jumper to cut Arcadia’s lead to 48-5 with 5:34 remaining in the third quarter.
The Lady Panthers’ season ended at 4-19, with two of those wins coming in February before they lost Ferguson for the remainder of the season.
Despite what they faced, Brown said she’s proud of the fight her team showed from season’s start to finish and believes that bodes well for the future.
“They learned how to play through adversity,” Brown said of the Lady Panthers. “They learned it at the very beginning of the year. But as the season went on, they learned to have confidence in themselves and how to keep fighting no matter how things might be going. One thing I can say is that they never gave up. They kept on fighting until the end.”
Brown said it ended up being a learning season for her, too.
“I learned patience,” Brown said. “Patience and that this is a very young team who are still growing — still only beginning to learn the game. This season was only the beginning for nearly all of these girls. Kayla was the only player we had with any kind of real, major experience. We only had two seniors (Wimberly and Londyn Barnes). So this season was a learning experience for all of them.
“We’ll get better. But right now we’re still taking baby steps, and that means a lot of stumbling and falling right now. We’re going to keep pushing forward and getting better.:
And that means the Lady Panthers focusing on basketball year round.
“We’re going to start offseason work soon, going to the very beginning and focusing on fundamentals and really learning the game,” Brown said. “I’m going to give them a week off and then we’re going to start right back at it — conditioning and learning.
“This team is going to get better. Kayla will be back better than ever. We have some new players coming in that have a little more knowledge about the game that will help us get better. This team learned a lot this season, about the game and about themselves. We’re going to build on that and keep moving forward.”
