Lady Falcons dominate Lamar, complete sweep
NyAsia Taylor with the ball as the Lady Falcons played the Lady Silver Foxes.
Photo by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Riding a three-game losing streak, the Darlington Lady Falcons earned a much-needed victory over the Lamar Lady Silver Foxes at home on December 15 by a score of 59-28, completing the season sweep of the Lady Silver Foxes for the season.
With three in double-digits in scoring, the Lady Falcons had more than enough offense to go along with some solid defense. LaDaysha Bonaparte finished as the leading scorer with 15 points, while NyAsia Taylor came in second with 12 points and Hope Richardson had 10.
Richardson, who I consider to be part of the triple tower along with Bonaparte and K’Daisha Evans, was on pace to score way more than the 10 points she finished with, but both her and Evans fouled out late in the third quarter, ending her night early.
But even with the early exit, Richardson was able to make her presence known, with scoring, rebounding and playing defensively, she was all over the court and Lamar had a very tough time matching up with her.
“We work for it,” Richardson said on the game overall and how her performance impacted it. “The more we work for it, the more we improve and I’m helping out more.”
The Lady Falcons were more than a bit aggressive on the defensive side of the basketball resulting in a higher number of fouls called, but head coach Frances Fields was not concerned with the fouls, instead she actually saw it as a sign of improvement.
“I just tell them to keep their aggression and keep going at it,” Fields said on the high number of fouls that resulted in two post players fouling out earlier than normal. “That is what they did tonight so I’m not mad at them. “They just got to learn when to foul and not to foul.”
Unfortunately for Lamar, however, it was not able to capitalize on the foul trouble of Darlington.
“Overall game tonight we just came up short, too many turnovers, too many free throws we left out there,” Lamar girls basketball head coach Randolph Scott said after the game. “We just didn’t get in a good groove.”
One of most glaring moments of the missed free throws came in the second quarter according Scott.
“We should have taken advantage of the second quarter,” Scott said on the second quarter. “That’s where we missed all of those free throws. We made a little run, but if we made free throws, instead of going in at half 26-8 we could have went into the half 26-16.”
Lamar for the majority of the time was a one woman show as Ashley Williams scored every point for the Lady Silver Foxes until the 3:36 mark in the third quarter when Niasia Howard drained a three-pointer from deep.
“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Williams said on her performance the overall outcome of the game. “We came up a little short, so next time we will get them.”
Despite the loss Scott showed enthusiasm, however, on the outlook for the season as his teams in the past have always been strong when it came to region play, and he has been known to use these non-conference games as important learning experiences.
“The season is still young and we still got a little work to do,” Scott said on what was gained from the game.
Darlington started the game on a 15-0 run before Lamar scored its first points of the game with 40 seconds left in the first quarter on a Williams two-pointer.
From there, the Lady Falcons controlled the game completely in almost every aspect outside of the foul trouble, but even with a 31 point victory Fields is still keeping to what she said in the preseason about the season being something that has to be taken one step at a time.
“My thoughts: A work in progress, that’s going to be the key all year, a work in progress. Honestly we just got to continue to get at it and get better everyday.”
A few more games like that and most will begin to believe that the progress she is looking for has arrived.
Weekly Recap
The Lady Falcons played one other game this week before schools went on winter break and while Darlington may have wanted to go into the break with some momentum, West Florence had a different idea.
After defeating the Lady Knights in the opening game of the season, West Florence got revenge at home, beating the Lady Falcons 49-46 in overtime this past Thursday night.
The girls overall record is now 3-4.
