Coming off a season in which the Lady Tigers hit a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to grab the No. 3 seed from Lovejoy, before falling in the first round of the playoffs, Alcovy is looking to start 2015-16 with a young squad.
The Lady Tigers lost six seniors from last year and have a lot of players who don’t have a lot of varsity experience along with a new head coach in Kevin Furtado, who started in mid-September.
“I’m excited to be here,” Furtado said. “This is a great opportunity. They have a great tradition here.”
Furtado is in his 25th year coaching basketball from public to private schools. He wants to work on skill development and building a culture of hard work at Alcovy.
“I never consider rebuilding,” Furtado said. “We’re kind of building a culture here of hard work, defense and the family atmosphere. The kids have really bought in, parents have bought in; now it’s a matter of just getting our kids more skilled.”
Losing six seniors who had a lot of playing time isn’t as big of an issue for Alcovy, with senior Tierra Hodges returning. Hodges led the team in scoring last year with 17.8 points per game and 10.1 rebounds.
“She’s definitely the focal point, but there’s no way we’re gonna win with just her scoring. What we try to do, it’s a defensive mindset. We like to get after you. We like to force the pressure and the tempo,” Furtado said. “We try to get a lot of touches with a lot of girls, but obviously Tierra is our No. 1. Everybody knows that, but we have some other girls stepping up that are capable of really adding to our depth and not just Tierra getting the only shots.”
“I’d actually like to see her be more selfish,” Furtado said. “She’s actually very unselfish, which is to her credit. There’s times you gotta look to score. I kind of like that unselfishness because players like to play with her.”
Quantasia Perry, Amari Montgomery and Kai Patterson should all make the load easier on Hodges. Furtado says Perry has unbelievable defense that gives a great effort and creates a lot of opportunities and Montgomery is capable of being a good outside shooter for them. Patterson is a senior with a lot of athleticism and Furtado hopes to turn that into something useful.
Alcovy played its first regular season game on Friday evening and won 48-45 over Salem after leading 33-20 at halftime and losing their lead. Furtado says foul trouble was an issue and they need to learn to play with a lead adding that the Lady Tigers have a lot of work to do.
Furtado is trying to establish a rotation of about eight or nine players while building Hodges’ offensive game to make her harder to guard.
“We’re trying to add to her game a little bit being more versatile. Getting some three-point opportunities from her so she’s just not sitting in the post getting double and triple teamed,” Furtado said.
On defense, Furtado likes to press and force the tempo to create chances to force turnovers. He wants to be aggressive and believes that’s the best way for the team to be successful now and down the road, where Furtado believes they could become a tough team.
Furtado is building his program around defense which showed in the first half against Salem and in the second half of Alcovy’s exhibition game against Luella where the Lady Tigers finished the game on a 34-15 run. For a team that could potentially be in the playoffs again, their success will be determined by their consistency and ability to score beyond Hodges.
Alcovy’s next game is Nov. 23 where they will host Blessed Trinity.
