Page 7 - TL Basketball Preview Oct 2016

TRI-LAKES EDITION OF THE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE BASKETBALL PREVIEW | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2016
7TT
MALVERN LADY LEOPARDS
Lady Leopards hope to return to winning ways
BY SAM PIERCE
STAFF WRITER
Having won a pair of state champi-
onships in recent years, there is a bit of expectation placed on head coach Jess Martin and the Malvern
Lady Leopards.
Malvern fell a little short last year, fin-
ishing 15-15 overall and placing third in the conference with an 8-6 record. The Lady Leopards advanced to the regional tourna- ment but missed out on the state tournament.
“It was a down year because we have been competing for a state championship the last couple of seasons,” Martin said. “We won it 2013 and 2014, and we lost so many players from those two teams.
“I was really pleased with how we finished last year, considering how we were sort of written off due to losing so many people.”
Returning from last year is all-conference point guard Laney Wallace, who averaged 10 points, three rebounds and two assists per game.
“She’s a senior, our captain and a floor leader,” Martin said.
Senior Kylah Clark, who averaged seven points, three rebounds and two steals per game, and junior Sierra Smith, who tallied eight points, four rebounds and two steals, also return for Malvern.
“Kylah is a real heady player. She has a real nose for the ball,” Martin said. “She knows where to be and plays real heads-up basketball.
“Sierra is our most versatile player and does a lot of things well for us.”
Other key contributors for the Lady Leopards including returning letterman
WILLIAM HARVEY/TRI-LAKES EDITION
Malvern’s Precious Toney directs the offense.
JaCoya Hodges. Martin described the senior as an excellent 3-point shooter, whose role will be increased this year.
“We are basically looking for her to play a bigger role after she averaged about 15 minutes a game last year,” Martin said. “She played in spells last year, so she would obvi- ously be called upon to play a bigger role this year. But she can really hit the outside shot. She is probably our best outside shooter.”
Martin said Malvern will be very versatile from the outside, as essentially, they have several players with perimeter skills.
“I think our perimeter play is our best asset,” Martin said. “I think we are going to be a really good shooting team.”
And that could be a good or bad thing, he said.
“Any one of our kids can knock down the 3-point shot,” Martin said. “Our biggest weakness will be our size. We have very little height, and we don’t have a true inside player.
“We run a lot of motion and movement because of that.”
Martin said senior Mani Williams brings depth to the point-guard position and is “probably our best defender.”
“Juniors Alayna Fields and Amarria Harper are both extremely athletic,” Martin said. “They have improved tremendously from last year.”
Sophomores Chaprie Sanders and Jasmyn Monk and junior Precious Toney could also see some playing time this season.
Martin said all of the starters are going to be around 5-5 and 5-7, and they don’t have anybody 5-9 or 5-10.
“So our weakness, obviously, is our height and post play,” Martin said. “That’s probably the biggest thing we have to overcome.”
He said because of his team’s overall lack of height, getting the ball inside is going to be a challenge.
“We better shoot a high percentage, or we could be in trouble,” Martin said.
The Lady Leopards are in the same con- ference with Harding University-commit
Kelli Lampo and the rest of the Jessieville Lady Lions, so the Lady Leopards’ lack of height and size could be easily exposed.
“We played Jessieville in a couple of team camps this summer,” Martin said. “While the point of team camp is to mainly work on yourselves, and you may not always play your best people, [Lampo] was a challenge.
“She is physically so much more dominant than any kid we have.”
Martin said they matched up well ath- letically, but he said Lampo was going to probably be one of the top five post players in the state.
“Going by what I know and the teams we faced this summer — not just offensively, but she’s pretty much going to get every rebound defensively as well,” Martin said.
Other opponents circled on the schedule include rivals Arkadelphia and Nashville.
“You can throw out the records for both
MALVERN GIRLS continued on 9TT
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NOV. 17 .....................................@OUACHITA* NOV. 21 ...SALINE CO. CHRISTIAN HOMESCHOOL NOV. 28-DEC. 3 .........MAGNET COVE TOURNEY DEC. 6 ............................................. POYEN* DEC. 9 ....................CUTTER-MORNING STAR* DEC. 13 ...........................ACADEMICS PLUS* DEC. 16 ...........................@MOUNTAIN PINE* DEC. 28-30 ............ @OUACHITA TOURNAMENT JAN. 3 ......................................CADDO HILLS JAN. 5 .....................................@SPRING HILL JAN. 7-14 .... @MURFREESBORO TOURNAMENT
JAN. 10 ................ @CUTTER-MORNING STAR* JAN. 13 ......................................... @POYEN* JAN. 17 .........................@ACADEMICS PLUS* JAN. 20 .............................. MOUNTAIN PINE* JAN. 24 ................................. @CADDO HILLS JAN. 26 ............................... MURFREESBORO JAN. 31 ........................................... BLEVINS FEB. 3 ......................................... OUACHITA* FEB. 7 .........................................@FOREMAN
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