The Lady Harvesters took the road to a tournament in the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the weekend. There were several 5A and 6A teams involved in the tournament, so the Lady Harvesters knew they had their work cut-out for them.
Pampa opened against No. 17 5A school Keller Fossil Ridge, where they fell 51-36. They then competed against 5A’s Fort Worth Chisholm Trail, where they lost 46-42. The Lady Harvesters picked up wins against 5A’s Arlington Heights 68-44 and 6A’s Arlington Lamar 54-45.
“I feel like it’s a pretty good accomplishment,” Head Coach Clinton Watson said. “ All of the teams in that tournament are not only a larger classification with more kids to choose from, but also larger than us physically, too. Against Chisholm Trail, their shortest girl is listed at 5’6”, our tallest girl is listed at 5’7”. Not only winning two of those games, but in our two losses being competitive ball games is a great feat.”
The Lady Harvesters signature win in the tournament would be against Arlington Heights.
“They had a pretty big post player that we were able to contain for the most part,” Watson said. “Going in at halftime we were up 27-25. We went to the locker room and made some adjustments, turned up the pressure and limited Heights to 19 points in the second half. With our defensive pressure turning up, we were able to get the offense rolling. We went on to score 41 points in the second half.”
When asked what two players stood out for Watson, he said it was hard to narrow down two but Senior Briley Daniels and freshman Brooklyn Warren did a great job.
“It’s hard to say just two players,” Watson said. “You can always say that Berlin is a player that stands out because she does so much on the court. I’d say Briley Daniels was outstanding. She’s a tough, hard nosed player that brings relentless attack to everything she does. She has taken a larger role in the ball handling duties.
“The other is Brooklyn Warren. She’s battling inside in the post position against larger opponents and definitely holding her own. And doing all this being a freshman.”
Still, with District starting Tuesday, Coach Watson knows there is work to be done.
“I’d still like to see us rebound the ball better,” Watson said. “Being a small team, battling for rebounds will be the key to our success for the remainder of the season. And free throws, we lost to Fossil Ridge by 15 and missed 17 free throws. We lost to Chisholm Trail by four and missed 11 free throws.”
The Lady Harvesters return to action Tuesday when they host Canyon to open District play.
“[We are] trying to treat it like any other game,” Watson said. “Make one play at a time. Trying to fine tune our angles on defense. Hopefully, some of the momentum we have from this past weekend will pay off for us tomorrow night.”
