By Angie Ledbetter

The Jr. Lady Wave improved their overall record to 14-3 after getting back in action after a long break for the holidays. They took down the Jr Lady Warriors from Deer Creek 31-23 on Friday, January 4, on their home court. It was a close battle until the Jr Lady Wave took control of the game in the fourth quarter.  

At the end of the first quarter, it was a close game with the Jr Lady Wave up 7-6 after Bradi Beard and Laci Dubravec stepped up to score. In the second quarter, the Jr Lady Wave took a 18-10 lead when Dubravec hit a three pointer with 2:56 on the clock. A few minutes later, Beard stole the ball and drove it down the court and scored. The Jr Lady Warriors came back and got within 4 points before the halftime. The Jr Lady Wave were ahead 20-14 at halftime.

To start the third quarter, the Jr Lady Warriors shot a three and got within 3 points of the Jr Lady Wave with 4:10 on the clock. The Jr Lady Wave missed some shots and didn’t rebound giving the Jr Lady Warriors a chance to get within one point 20-19. The quarter ended with the Jr Lady Wave up 24-19.

In the fourth quarter, Beard hit a two and Dubravec hit a three-pointer to help the Jr Lady Wave take a bigger margin 31-23 over the Jr Lady Warriors and get the win.

Laci Dubravec scored 20 of the 31 points for the Jr Lady Wave.  She was 67 percent from the three point line and chipped in seven steals to go along with a pair of steals and rebounds. Bradi Beard scored 11 points, had seven total rebounds, six steals and seven assists.

Hannah Waldrip had Eight rebounds and two steals. Mary Jane Morrow had three steals, a pair of rebounds and one assist. Katelyn Still led the team in steals with five and dished out three assists.

Head Coach Phil Douglas said it was a very good effort from his team especially coming off of the holidays.  “We had Hannah Greenlee who is a starter for us and Jordan Pointer who is the first one off of the bench and had started a couple of games, were both gone. We knew that Deer Creek had a quality Jr high girl’s team.  They lost to Marvell by 2 points at Marvell earlier in the season and that was a common opponent that we had. That was the game that Marvell had beat us at their place by 3 points and we had beat Marvell at the Delta tournament earlier in the year by three. I thought that our kids really stepped up tonight.”

Douglas talked about Laci Dubravec. “I told Laci that she needed to loosen up and relax and enjoy playing the game and that’s exactly what she did tonight. She just went out there and relaxed and had fun.”