Lady Falcons make easy work of Lakewood on senior night
De’Ja Turner trys to find an opening to pass the ball.
Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
It was a sensational senior night for the Darlington Lady Falcons this past Friday, cruising to 61-31 victory over the Lakewood Lady Gators.
“I told the girls all week we have to keep our heads high and keep playing together,” Darlington girls head coach Brad Knox said. “It’s going to be a long season; it’s going to be a lot of basketball we are going to have to play. You have to stay together, compete together, share the basketball and trust in each other.”
With starting forward, Hope Richardson, on the bench due to a leg injury, Darlington’s depth was on full display as the Lady Falcons, despite being down one of their best players, used its size and speed to out muscle and run the Lady Gators.
“Hope is a big presence down low for us, but we feel like we have multiple bigs that can step up at any time and put together a good, solid game in the paint,” Knox said. “As long as we keep playing together, I think we will be fine.”
Up 17-10 after the first quarter, the Lady Falcons opened up the second quarter on an 8-0 run and finished the quarter outscoring Lakewood 15-6 at the half.
Unable to extend the lead in the third quarter, the fourth quarter was a show of sheer dominance by the Lady Falcons, scoring 16 points to Lakewood’s measly two, coming from free throws.
“After that Hartsville game we made some adjustments in practice and I told them we look very good when we are out playing defense all in the floor, looking scrappy and getting the ball out ahead,” Knox said. “Our defense creates a lot of offensive points for us.”
Darlington opened the fourth quarter on a 14-0 run with senior forward, LaDaysha Bonaparte scoring six of those 14 points on back to back to back baskets.
That was not the only sequence where Bonaparte shined above the others. Throughout the game she was a match up nightmare for the Lady Gators, controlling the paints, snagging rebounds and getting second chance points off of missed layups by teammates and she trailed transition plays perfectly for those opportunities.
“Being that I am one of the bigs, and one of the main bigs was out, I knew I had to step my game up,” Bonaparte said. “Coach Knox had talked to me already and told me what he needed to see out of me and I felt that I gave him that tonight. I felt that since it was senior night it gave me an extra push because I know this is my last senior night, my only senior night, and without my teammates it couldn’t have happened.”
The Lady Falcons look to be peaking at the right time and have continuously improved as the season has gone on, playing some of the best basketball the girls’ program has played in the last six years.
“We are just trying to talk about right now, we have to take care of one game at a time and we have to keep competing every night,” Knox said.
Darlington is now 12-5 overall, 2-2 in the region and that was the only game the Lady Falcons played this past week.
Asani Davis sets up a shot during the game against Lakewood.
