Lack of rebounding, offense slow Darlington girls
Darlington’s Laqueena Dubose takes it to the rim during the game against the Lady Foxes Jan. 20.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
It was an array of problems for the Darlington Lady Falcons this past Friday against the Hartsville Lady Red Foxes.
From hot shooting in the first quarter, poor rebounding and a cold fourth quarter, the Lady Falcons were unable to get any momentum going as they lost on the road to Hartsville 49-32.
While going for what seemed to be shot for shot with Hartsville in the first quarter, the Lady Falcons continuously lost ground as the Lady Foxes drained five three-pointers compared to Darlington’s one.
“They were kind of quick, they were kind of fast,” Darlington girls head coach Brad Knox said of Hartsville. “We have to do a better job of closing out on shooters. We didn’t stick to the scouting report that we had set out for them to accomplish during the game.”
Both offenses seemingly stalled in the second quarter, but the Lady Red Foxes’ possessions more than doubled the Lady Falcons’ as Hartsville killed Darlington on the glass grabbing not only defensive rebounds, but numerous offensive rebounds.
“I told them before the game that we have to win the rebound battle,” Knox said, talking of the importance of rebounding.
Coming out of the half, Darlington actually put together its best quarter of the game outscoring the Lady Red Foxes 11-10, cutting the lead to 42-31 giving the Lady Falcons some momentum as both teams headed into the final period.
Somewhere, however, that momentum was lost as Darlington was completely dominated in the fourth quarter by Hartsville.
With what felt like a legitimate chance to make a comeback, the fourth quarter against Hartsville became the worse quarter of the season for the Lady Falcons as Darlington scored only one point in the period, a free throw by LaDaysha Bonaparte at the 2:41 mark.
“Well I know I have a defensive team, but we have to be able to run an offensive set and at times we did a good job of running sets, but we have to be consistent when we are running these types of sets,” Knox said after Darlington’s poor performance in the fourth quarter.
As bad as the quarter was for Darlington, it was not that much better for Hartsville as the Lady Red Foxes mustered only seven points, including going scoreless for the final three minutes.
The loss is the Lady Falcons second of the region this season, shrinking the margin of error Darlington has if it wants to hosting a playoff game this season.
“We have to put everything together and we have to keep competing and fighting every day and get better every day,” Knox said.
The Lady Falcons take on the Lakewood Gators Friday at home.
