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PREP BASKETBALL: Lady Redskins early struggles too much to overcome
Taylor Favors
Social Circle Lady Redskins Taylor Favors fights through the Banks County Lady Leopards stifling defense. Photo by Michael Pope.

SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. - It was a tough night for the Social Circle Lady Redskins (4-12, 1-6), who fell to the Banks County Lady Leopards (8-10,4-3) by a score of 78-30 in a match that saw the host team get better as the game progressed.

It was a tough start for the Lady Redskins as the opening quarter ended with the visiting Lady Leopards up 19-0. The second quarter was not as encouraging as the Lady Redskins went into the halftime break trailing by a score of 46-7.

Lady Redskins head coach Kimberly Battle said that her team needs to come out more focused from tipoff and stay more in tune with the gameplan to start finding the success that they want.

"We gotta be more in tune with what the gameplan is instead of playing to the crowd," said Battle. "We can't dig a hole in the first half and try to dig out in the second half, that doesn't work for us. It's proven not to work for us."

The Lady Redskins came out in the second half and played much better basketball as they outscored the Lady Leopards 12-10 in the third quarter. Battle made some adjustments defensively that helped slow the success of the opposition and get more turnovers for her team. 

"I switched the defense up to try to create turnovers; that was my main goal. Turnovers get us going and help us get some points and see if that can change the game," Battle said. "We went wider in our 2-3 zone instead of a basic 2-3 set."

That change did get the Lady Redskins going in the third quarter, and lone senior Areonnia Vinson helped lead the way as she finished in double digits with 10 points on the night. Vinson only had two points heading into the halftime break, but she made some changes that helped her on both sides of the ball. 

"I realized I needed to step up and play harder than I was playing earlier," Vinson said. "We needed to get ahead of them (on transition) and not let them beat us."

With this tough loss, Battle said the three main areas that she wants her young group to improve upon are "playing as a team, communication and the fundamentals."

The Lady Redskins will have to work on that in practice over the next couple of days as they prepare for their next match, which will be at home on Tuesday, Jan. 14, against Monticello.