Published: November 12, 2008 10:52 am         

Lady Leopards lose season opener

By JIM OTTS

Register Correspondent

The Gainesville Lady Leopards opened the 2008 basketball season looking at the heels of the Wichita Falls Hirschi Lady Huskies, who raced away with a 71-26 victory.

“We stayed with them for the first half of the first quarter and then they started getting away from us,” Leopard Coach Harold Harrison said.

Hirschi opened scoring with a driving layup by Crystal Booth, who got 12 of her total 19 points in the first quarter. The visitors added a pair of free throws to up the lead to 4-0 and Harrison had to burn a time out with the game barely a minute old.

Settling his charges helped a little.

The Lady Leopards fought back to tie the match 4-4 and tied it again at 5-5 before the Lady Huskies started pressing in the forecourt. The pressure caused three straight turnovers that led to points and the Reds trailed 11-5 before they could get across the middle stripe.

The first period ended with Hirschi leading 22-10.

Both teams went flat in the second stanza with a lot of missed passes and even more missed shots.  The taller Hirschi ladies had a large rebound edge and created second and third chances under the basket and eventually scored 11.

Gainesville was limited to seven and trailed 33-17 at the half.

Defensive pressure in the forecourt continued to be a valuable tool for Hirschi in the third and the Lady Leopards turned the ball over frequently underneath their own backboard. Hirschi won that stanza 16-6 and led 49-23 as the final frame began.

The visitors called off the full court press for the final quarter and relied on a different defensive tactic.

Tojeasha Cooper stepped to the top of the key and waited for her chance to step between Gainesville guards, then intercepted pass after pass and turned the thefts into easy baskets at the other end.

Cooper had 10 of her game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter and the Lady Huskies outscored the Lady Leopards 22-3.

“Hirschi has a good team,” Harrison said. “They were in the playoffs last year and they are likely to make the playoffs again this year. They have a couple of players that will probably go to D-1 (NCAA Division I) next year.”

The coach added that his team lacked a lot of experience. Four are seniors, three are juniors and three are sophomores.

“We are young, but we have expectations. I told the girls they would have to work a lot harder on moving their feet and boxing out and taking care of the ball,” Harrison said.  “We are a better team than what we showed tonight.”

Amy Franklin, with 11 points, was the only Lady Leopard in double digits. Alexandra Cooney and Shanique Jackson each scored five.

The Lady Leopards next face the Lady Bearcats in Sherman. The game was originally scheduled for Friday night, but has been rescheduled for Saturday morning. The junior varsity girls play at 10 a.m. and the varsity game follows at about 11:30 a.m.

“We changed the date and time so the Sherman girls could follow their football team in the playoffs,” Harrison said.

In the junior varsity game Tuesday the Lady Leopards managed just five points through the first three quarters and trailed 15-5 going into the fourth.

Katie Heffron scored five of the Leopards 10 fourth-quarter points, including one 3-point shot, but the rally fell short and Hirschi won the game 19-15.