Tough Start of Season for Lady Wolverines
By EDDY GIFFORD
Sports Writer
Photo by Eddy Gifford – The Lady Wolverines Andi Norwood gets off a shot against a good Lady Lion team last week at Section High School. The Lady Wolverines also faced Heritage on Saturday. The first home game of the season is Nov. 28.
The Dade County High School Lady Wolverines basketball team opened the 2023-2024 season last week when they traveled to Section, Ala., to face the Section High School’s Lady Lions.
The traditionally strong Lady Lions got off to a four-point lead, but the young Lady Wolverines tied the game at 4-4 early in the first quarter.
From that point on, Dade County found the going rough as the Lady Lions’ depth and quickness took a toll.
At the end of the first quarter the Lady Wolverines were trailing 12-4 and struggling.
Section built on their lead in the second quarter, scoring 20 points while the Lady Wolverines managed only seven points and trailed at the end of the first half, 32-11.
The Lady Wolverines played much better defense in the second half, after giving up 12 points in the third quarter, holding the Lady Lions to just three fourth quarter points.
Dade County went ice cold shooting the ball however as nothing would fall and they managed just two second half points and fell to Section 47-13.
Andi Norwood led Dade with five points, Alyson Jenkins with three, Zariah Hughes and Adilynn Gross had two each. Gross had three rebounds.
On Saturday, Nov. 18, the Lady Wolverines traveled to Ridgeland High School to face the Lady Generals of Heritage High School. Heritage is an AAA high school in Ringgold.
The Lady Generals came out hot and totally dominated the first quarter pouring in 23 first quarter points while the Lady Wolverines shooting woes continued as they failed to score.
Dade County would get on the board in the second quarter, but Heritage continued to pour in the points and at the end of the first half they held a commanding 41-7 lead.
In the second half, the Lady Wolverines continued to play hard, but the bigger Lady Generals continued to dominate and when the final seconds ticked off, they claimed the win 69-20.
The Lady Wolverines did show improvement as they out–rebounded the Lady Generals 30-22, but turnovers continued to be a big problem as the Lady Generals scored 37 points on turnovers.
Kiera Hughes led Dade with nine points, Norwood and Brooklyn Konrad had four points each and Morgan Edwards with two points.
The Lady Wolverines have a new coaching staff this season and head coach Katie Burrows stated that, “We have a long way to go before we become a good ball team. Our goal is to be a little better today than we were yesterday. The girls are working hard and are having to learn all new things. Change is always a difficult thing, and they are still trying to learn their identities individually so that we can be better collectively.”
The Lady Wolverines are off until they host Oakwood Christian on Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.
