Earlier in the week in the 63rd District Tournament preview was a reminder of what Jay Fite and his Lewis County girls’ basketball team does in the first round.
Win.
The Lady Lions did it again on Monday, defeating Raceland 38-31, advancing to the championship game and more importantly extending their season another week as they’ll head to the 16th Region tournament next week.
It’s the ninth time in 10 seasons as head coach the Lady Lions have advanced to the 16th Region tourney, looking for their fourth district championship in that timeframe as they try to knock off four-time reigning champ Russell on Thursday.
They’ll have their work cut out.
“Honestly I think they’re the best team in the region,” Fite said. “Anytime you have an explosive point guard that demands so much respect to keep her out of the paint, they’ve got shooters too and she makes you make a choice. They’re just as big as we are too. I feel like they’ve played like the best team in the region many nights.”
Despite Thursday night’s outcome, the Lady Lions will be battle tested whoever their opponent is in the first round of the 16th Region tournament. That comes from a motto that Fite’s learned throughout his playing and coaching career, most notably the coach over on the boys’ side at Lewis County, Joe Hampton.
“When I was an assistant under Joe I learned a lot about perseverance. It doesn’t matter the record, you gather experience as the season goes on and hope to make a solid postseason run,” Fite said. “I always tell the kids early in the year we try to make them uncomfortable to get comfortable. It may be a loss or bump in the road, but we try and find lineups we can use and make sure the kids trust each other.”
Even after a 1-5 start to the season, Fite knew their was no quit in this team. They won eight out of nine games from there to quickly turn things around and built confidence along the way. They’ve battled some moments of inconsistency from there, but that was expected with a team that didn’t enter the season with a whole lot of experience from its seniors and a couple of budding stars as underclassmen.
The budding stars are freshman Sarah Paige Weddington and sophomore Cheyenne D’Souza, only scratching the surface of their potential. Weddington was the difference maker in the win or go home game Monday, scoring 25 of the team’s 38 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. D’Souza has posted numerous double-doubles throughout the season as well.
“Sarah has really blossomed, we knew that she had a lot of potential and still has a ways to go to figure out how she can exploit people. She handles it, can post up and has a mid-range game. As her strength catches up, her ceiling is about as high as anybody I’ve ever had here,” Fite said. “Chey is still really raw. She didn’t start playing basketball until the sixth grade. Each year we’ve seen growth in her game and we feel her junior and senior year she can really explode once she really starts to figure it out.”
Others like Aliyah Horsley and Payton McGlone have stepped up into those senior leadership roles and come around. Horsley is looked upon as the key perimeter defender and that’s important considering how deep the region is with guard play. McGlone has found her niche offensively and does a lot of the “dirty work”, Fite said.
Like all good coaches, they adapt to their team. Fite admits he’s a run and gun guy, but has to play to the personnel on his team. With the Lady Lions length and inexperience at times in guard play, they have to grind out possessions and limit them, quite a bit different in his playing days at Tollesboro and Mason County.
They do that often in postseason.
“A lot of times our scores look bad in the postseason, but if we’re the underdog we can’t let them get 25 more possessions than us and we have to control the basketball and control the post,” Fite said. “That will be key for us tomorrow is to limit them in transition and in order to do that we have to limit our turnovers.”
The Lady Lions will take on Russell at 7 p.m. at Greenup County.
