The Paris junior Eagles and Lady Eagles dropped their first round games Monday night at the Lamar Invitational Tournament. The Class 4A Pottsville Junior Lady Apaches gave the Junior Lady Eagles and the Junior Eagles their first losses of the young season.
Both teams, in just the second week of the new season, are working to find the right lineup combinations and rotations that the coaches will use when conference play begins. The preseason tournaments provide area teams the opportunity to play critical games early in the year to prepare them for conference play.
Paris boys basketball coach, Mike Foster was asked about his junior high team’s performance against Pottsville. Coach Foster said, “Pottsville has a very good team. The boys (Eagles) played very hard; we just had too many turnovers to win the ball game. Proud of the effort they gave.” On the night, Sam Muldrow had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Paris. Jesse Wells had 11 points and 8 rebounds, and Juan Santos had 7 points and 4 assists. The junior Eagles lost the game to Pottsville 42-35.
Paris girls basketball coach Dustin Williams emphasized the number of new players on this year’s junior Lady Eagles team. “Our new team with some fresh faces is still finding its way. We have seen ourselves win a close game (in the opening win versus County Line), and come back from an early deficit in game two to win (versus Dardanelle). In game three last night against Pottsville, we proved that we have the ability to play with anyone in the area. We are still working on getting our legs under us and we are still figuring out our new roles as a team. All of our girls now have bigger roles on this team than they did the year before. Our team is also getting use to a new offensive and defensive philosophy, as well. We are ahead of schedule than we were at this point in the season last year, but we still have a lot of room to improve.” In last night’s game versus Pottsville, Jayden Wells had 14 points and 4 rebounds. Brailey Forst had 10 poiints and 6 rebounds. The Lady Eagles reduced the lead to 4 points early in the fourth quarter but could not quite get over the hump to secure their third victory of the season. Pottsville defeated the junior Lady Eagles 45-29.
The Paris senior Lady Eagles will open play today in the Booneville Invitational Tournament. The Lady Eagles will play Prairie Grove at 4 p.m. The senior boys will also play Prairie Grove at approximately 5:30 p.m. today.
The Paris junior girls will resume play in the Lamar Invitational tournament on Wednesday with a match-up with Johnson County Westside. That game begins at 6 p.m. The junior boys will also play Westside at approximately 7 p.m.
Stay with Resident Press throughout the season for more Paris Eagles and Lady Eagles basketball coverage!
