By T. Scott Boatright
GRAMBLING — Growing pains continued for Lincoln Preparatory School’s Lady Panthers Friday night as they fell 51-11 to Arcadia inside the LPS gym to close out their 2024-25 season.
Lincoln Prep went 2-18 overall this season and 1-6 in District 1-1A play.
The big loss to the Lady Hornets wasn’t a shock by any means as Arcadia stands at 25-4 heading into the Division IV Nonselect School playoffs and finished at 6-1 in district play.
Lincoln Prep coach Demetria Johnson’s team faced an uphill battle from the start. Johnson took over coaching duties just before the season began, inheriting a team that had little experience or even much understanding of basketball fundamentals.
But despite the way the 2024-25 season went, Johnson feels a much brighter future is in store for her team and that the experience gained this season by players who will return next season will make for a significantly stronger team.
“I know the future is going to be better because we’re raising a lot of young students who are going to help us get better,” Johnson said. “We’re training a lot of our elementary school students and they will be our future along with the players who return and only began building their basketball I.Q. this season.”
Lack of fundamental knowledge showed early on against Arcadia as the Lincoln Prep struggled greatly to even get the ball past halfcourt, turning it over time and time again.
That led to Arcadia building an 18-1 lead at the end of the first quarter, with the Lady Panthers’ lone point coming on a Skyla Wimberly free throw with only 25.9 seconds left in the stanza.
The Lady Hornets backed off their pressure defense late in the second quarter, allowing Lincoln Prep’s Zakyah Wimberly to hit a 3-pointer before Arcadia kept scoring to build a 33-4 halftime advantage.
A running clock that started in the second quarter made the last two quarters fly by.
Synniah Spann led Lincoln Prep with five points, banking a 3-pointer off the glass in the third quarter before adding a running jumper with 2:35 remaining for the Lady Panthers’ final points.
Jamekia Scott added two points for the Lady Panthers when she grabbed an inbounds pass inside the paint and hit a short jumper at the 4:27 mark of the fourth quarter.
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