Hardwood Heroes Sports
Meigs Lady Marauders Defend Home Court Versus Wahama As Young Players Continue to Grow
By: Nick Henthorn
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It was Bob Dylan who once wrote, “The Times, They are a-Changin.”
For the Meigs Lady Marauders, the times have already changed.
Graduating seven seniors and saying goodbye to a head coach last year left Meigs with a lot of shoes to fill, and as this season has progressed, newly minted head coach Heath Hudson is taking things one step at a time.
“We’ve been working a lot on just basic stuff; we’ve got to work a lot on that,” Hudson said. “Right now we’re kind of going through growing pains here these last few weeks, so we’re working on ourselves, trying to eliminate turnovers, working on boxing out. You know, we’ve got a lot of young kids so we’ve got to just keep pounding on those basic things.”
Going back to the basics served the Lady Marauders well Wednesday night, as they took down the Wahama Lady White Falcons 50-31.
Sophomore Mallory Hawley led the charge for Meigs, totaling 22 points to go along with seven steals, three blocks and four rebounds. Jerrica Smith and Rylee Lisle also tallied nine points apiece.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Lady Marauders, as they ran into foul trouble while also taking their licks on the glass. Wahama got themselves to the line often, attempting 23 free throws and capitalizing on 13 of them. When it came to the rebounding battle, Lisle was a bright spot, securing eight rebounds, but Wahama kept the game within reach for the first three quarters by relentlessly chasing their own missed shots.
The fourth quarter removed any chance of a Wahama comeback, as Meigs won the frame 10-4, only allowing a single field goal while getting a hand up at every Wahama shot attempt. Hawley and Lisle spoke about their team’s defense after the game.
“It was a great win, we’ve been working on our defense a lot in practice so we really stepped up tonight and got the win,” Hawley said.
“We had a lot of defensive stops, forced turnovers, we’ve been working hard on all that stuff in practice,” Lisle added.
Hawley and Lisle were also aware of the youth of their team, and the importance of stepping into more pronounced roles.
“Well, we lost seven seniors, so that was hard, we all knew coming in that the younger ones would have to step up,” Hawley said.
“I think coming in as a freshman, and a lot of underclassmen coming in with us, we knew we had to step up to the game,” Lisle said.
Stepping up in terms of production is one thing, but equally important ingredients to any team are leaders, and tonight, coach Hudson had two players in mind.
“Mallory [Hawley] is a sophomore, and she was voted in as a captain, and this team feeds off her defense. She gets a lot of turnovers, blocked shots, those kinds of things really get the girls excited so she’s always been a good leader,” Hudson said. “Even last year, started as a freshman on our team last year. Rylee Lisle, she’s coming into her own here now, she’s finally getting through her head that if she does certain things, those things will start falling her way. So it’s a learning curve for these young kids.”
With growth in games like this, that learning curve looks to be trending upwards.