KHS, WRHS impress

Normally, basketball games played prior to district competition serve basically as a warm-up to get teams ready for district play.

Tonight’s game for the Kilgore High School Lady Bulldogs at Tatum might be a little more than that.

The KHS Lady ’Dogs, who went 2-2 over the weekend in a tournament at Winnsboro High School, visit Tatum — and former head coach Patricia Nelson — tonight. Freshmen play at 5 p.m., with junior varsity and varsity to follow.

There’s no bad feelings between the girls and Nelson — in fact, it’s just the opposite.

Another game also will take place for the KHS boys tonight — coach Brady Gage’s Bulldogs are 0-3, coming off a 69-59 loss at home to Chapel Hill. The Bulldogs will play at Gladewater tonight, beginning with freshmen at 5, JV and varsity to follow.

Other games tonight include Sabine High School’s boys hosting Arp, West Rusk’s Lady Raiders opening their District 19-2A schedule on the road at Arp, and the Sabine Lady Cardinals at Jefferson.

For Tatum, most eyes are probably on the football team, still a part of the Class 3A Division II playoffs.

But you can bet Nelson, a close friend to many in this community, would like to beat her former team tonight.

Nelson had a fairly significant amount of success at Kilgore. She took over a program that had some good history, but had never won a playoff game. In Nelson’s three years, the Lady Bulldogs finished with two district championships, made the playoffs all three seasons, and went four rounds deep in the playoffs the second year, the best year in KHS girls basketball history.

First-year KHS girls coach Tracy Kincade has seen his team, which should be somewhat of a rebuilding mode after losing almost all the starters from the previous three seasons, compete with tough opposition this year. Just so far, not even counting District 17-4A play, the Lady Bulldogs have played stateranked Tyler Lee, state-ranked Hughes Springs, and alwaystough Winnsboro (prior to the tournament). Aside from one bad quarter against Lee, the Lady ’Dogs have played well this season.

Over the weekend, KHS opened the Winnsboro tournament against Allen, the tournament’s defending champion (Allen would go on to win it this year, as well). KHS lost to Allen, 59-24, and no Lady Bulldog hit double figures in scoring.

KHS was led by Ashia Kelly, who had eight points, two blocked shots, two steals, and three assists. LaJohnna Woolridge scored seven and had two blocks, and Christina Mumphrey scored five. Simone Jones and Tai’Shea Reese each had two.

In the second game of the tournament, KHS lost, 57-37, to Forney Saturday morning. It was the first game of the tournament that day. “We played at 9 a.m.,” Kincade said. “And we didn’t wake up ’til the second half, cut the lead to eight points at the five-minute mark of the third period.”

But the Lady Bulldogs had too many turnovers (18), and shot only 50 percent (9 of 18) from the free-throw line. Kelly was again the leader, scoring 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Mumphrey scored 10 and had three rebounds. Reese had eight points and eight rebounds; Woolridge had seven points, four rebounds and three assists; and Jami Hein hit a free throw for a point.

Kilgore won its third game, 55-38, over Dallas Christian.

“We played pretty well here, after a sluggish first quarter from sitting around all day,” Kincade graded.

The Lady ’Dogs shot 49 percent — 17 of 35 — from the field, and got a combined 50 points from Woolridge, Kelly and Reese. Woolridge led with 18 points. She had six rebounds, two steals, two assists and two blocks.

Kelly dropped in 17 — she also had six rebounds, two blocks, two steals and two assists. For Reese, who scored 15, it was a career high; she also had eight rebounds and three steals.

Mumphrey had three points, four rebounds and five steals, and Kym Daniels scored two points.

In the final game of the tournament for Kilgore — for sixth place — KHS won, beating Pittsburg 47-32.

“Pittsburg has a 6-foot-3 girl that they like to get the ball to,” Kincade explained. “So our defensive focus was on her. Simone Jones did a great job of using her body and strength to push her away from the basket. Our team defense was awesome in this game.”

So was Kelly, who finished with 25 points. She also had two blocks, two steals and three assists. Woolridge finished with nine points, four steals and three assists. Lakelia Williams scored eight points and had three rebounds. Reese had three points and seven rebounds, and Dareia Tolbert had two points and two rebounds.

“Ashia and LaJohnna are going to have to continue to play well and continue to be our offensive leaders,” Kincade said. “Tai’Shea had an outstanding tournament. She was everywhere. She’s starting to play better and starting to understand what we need from her.”

 West Rusk wins Ore City tourney: The West Rusk Lady Raiders haven’t even played a district game — they’ll take care of that tonight — and they’ve already gotten their ninth win of the season.

West Rusk won the Ore City High School girls tournament over the weekend, beating the host team, 46-42, in the finals on Saturday.

Coach Tommy Fields’ Lady Raiders (9-2) visit Arp tonight at 5 p.m. (JV, varsity to follow) for their first District 19-2A game this year.

Few area teams are hotter than West Rusk right now. But Fields thinks his team can play even better. “This was not one of our better games of the year,” Fields said, “but we did what we had to do at the end of the game to win.”

Eventual tournament most valuable player Patricia Patin had a big steal with just second left, Fields said, to help West Rusk hang on.

Destiny Walker led WR with 12 points, and had five steals. Alex Hammontree scored 11, had three rebounds, blocked two shots and had two steals. Shan Hawkins had seven points and two rebounds for WR, and Monica Alexander had four points and two rebounds.

Erin Bates scored three, had five rebounds and three steals; Beth Ann Wedgeworth had two points and five rebounds; and Torisha Williams scored two points and had three rebounds.