The Paris Lady Eagles hosted the Waldron Lady Bulldogs on Friday night at Paris Gymnasium. After trailing at the half, Paris eventually pulled away, in part with clutch free throw shooting in the fourth quarter, to defeat the Lady Bulldogs. Paris will travel to Hackett on Tuesday night to play the Lady Hornets in their second game of the conference schedule.
Lady Eagles coach Donald Hart was pleased to win the team’s first conference game, but was not pleased overall with his team’s performance. Coach Hart commented, “Was proud the team was able to pull out the win late, but was disappointed in our overall play. Poor team rebounding and too many unforced turnovers. Got to clean some missed defensive assignments up and continue to focus on improving offensively. Jadyn Hart and Brailey Forst were big for us down the stretch. Got to continue getting good numbers from those two heading into Christmas break.”
Although the Lady Eagles looked sluggish in the first half, the team did seem to come out of the locker room from the half with a little more fire and determination. Late scoring plays and clutch free throw shooting down the stretch were eventually enough to secure the win for the Lady Eagles.
Remembering that the core of this team that played volleyball in the fall was not an emotional or high energy team, the 2020-21 version of the Lady Eagles basketball team seems to be following the same pattern. For the long winter months of January and February where there is one important conference game after the other each week, Paris will have to find a higher level of energy and intensity to match and exceed their opponents’. The team cannot wait to pick up the intensity until they are behind in the second half of critical conference games. This team is relatively young and inexperienced on the varsity level, and they will continue to improve each week of the season.
In the win for the Lady Eagles, Jadyn Hart and Brailey Forst led the team in scoring with 16 and 15 points respectively. Jadyn Wells added 5 points for Paris.
In boys play, it was a dominating performance by the Waldron Bulldogs as they were in control for the entire night and handed the Paris senior boys a decisive lost at home in the first conference game for both schools. Paris had no answers for the Waldron pressure defense and the Bulldogs’ fast breaking offense that seemed to score at will against the Eagles. The loss was the third double-digit loss for the Eagles who must now regroup and fix some problems early if they want to be competitive in conference play.
Mequeil Ellingberg led the Eagles with 22 points. Sam Muldrow had 14, and Jesse Wells added 9 points for Paris. Eagles coach Blain Brewington said after the game, “Still trying to find our identity. Still too many turnovers. Defense was not where it needs to be in order to compete with top teams in our league. We are a work in progress.”
Paris has suffered their third straight loss by significant, double-digit margins, and the team, who started the season playing good basketball, seems to be having trouble integrating the new players from the football program into their rotations. But Eagles fans have to keep all of this in its proper perspective. The six football players have been on the basketball team for less than one week and have had very little practice time with the team. There is a lot of talent on the team, but there is also very little experience on the varsity level, and they have a new coach this year who is installing his system and expectations. It is very early in the season, and I expect this team to continue to have growing pains over the next few games, but will hit its stride in January. By post-season time, the Eagles could be a different team and could be a threat going into the district and regional tournaments. The core of this team is playing their first year of varsity basketball, but, they are very talented and will improve with each game.
Waldron, who finished last year as tri-champions of their conference along with Charleston and Elkins, was impressive and appears to be set as a contender for the title in their new conference. Certainly, the Bulldogs will be even tougher at home, and the win at Paris was big for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs, along with Cedarville and Charleston, will be very tough, and Paris must simply improve its game and find the right combination of players who can go to war with the conference schools that are expected to make a run for the title.
Paris basketball action will resume on Monday night when the Hackett Hornets junior high teams come to Paris to play the junior Eagles and Lady Eagles. Seventh grade girls, junior girls, and junior high boys games will be played starting at 5 p.m.
Senior high games against the Hornets will be played at Hackett on Tuesday. Senior girls and boys junior varsity games, as well as senior girls and boys games will be played starting at 5 p.m. Next week is the final week of conference play for Paris before the holidays break. Both the Eagles and Lady Eagles need to go into the break with two conference wins next week before they resume their conference schedule at Charleston on January 5.
Have a great weekend and Resident Press will be in Hackett on Tuesday night to bring you coverage of the Lady Eagles and Eagles games with the Hornets. Look to Resident Press on Wednesday afternoon for a complete recap of Tuesday night’s games.
