Facing a tough stretch of four away games, the varsity girls basketball team (4-8, 0-1 in District 6-6A) needs to figure out a winning strategy for the second half of its season.
“We have our obstacles as a team,” junior small forward Makiya Williams said. “We have to do the little things right, no matter how practice goes, [we] can’t just think that we’re already beat because we play a better team. We have to come together and play our hardest.”
The Farmers lost their district opener 62-58 against Marcus (8-7, 1-0), dropping their first home game of the season. The team has three difficult matchups left in December, starting with Hebron (14-1, 1-0) which the girls play tonight at 6:15 p.m. at Hebron.
“The most important thing about preparing for teams like [Hebron] is playing our style,” senior point guard Aaliyah Scott said. “We can’t let their defense speed us up or slow us down. Hebron is going to be good, but we have to know what we do best and what we can do to score the ball.”
After the Hawks, the team will play at Coppell (11-8, 1-0) and at Plano East (6-12, 0-1). All three were playoff teams last season, and Coppell finished the season 38-4 as regional champions and state semifinalists.
“Preparation is everything,” head girls basketball coach Catherine Williams said. “Sometimes we’ll go practice against the JV2 boys team to get us ready for the physicality and speed of those games. This is probably one of the toughest districts in North Texas.”
Earlier this season, the team participated in the Colleyville Heritage Tip Off Classic, going 1-2 and being eliminated 51-38 in the consolation bracket by Keller (8-6). After the loss to the Indians, the Farmers fell into a four game skid on the road before returning home and finishing November with a 52-45 win over Lone Star (5-9).
“We had our frustrations of course since we know we can do better,” Makiya said. “We just tried to push through at the end of the day and figure out what we can do to get better.”
The Farmers are fifth in the district in points scored per game (47.6) and points allowed per game (50.3) in their district, but consider defense to be one of their strengths with “everyone on the same page.” It will be crucial to challenging the 14-1 Hawks, who are scoring an average of 62.2 points per game, outpacing the district.
“This team can be really good if we focus on defense,” Catherine said. “We’re small and scrappy, so if we can focus and lock in, this could be really good. We’re hard to score on when we play together. Overall, they’re working really well together and it can only get better from here.”
The team is 3-1 at home, but 0-5 in away games. Picking up some wins before the new year will be challenging, but Scott is leading by example with a career high 26 points, 12 from three-pointers, to go along with five steals against Marcus.
“Aaliyah is a dominant point guard,” Catherine said. “She’s an all around player and leads the team in steals, points and deflections. She leads the floor and handles the ball for us.”
The Farmers look to turn the season around and hold a playoff spot come February, the first in Williams three years of coaching the team and the first since the 2020-21 season. There’s half a season left to play, but the mentality is that this team will finish in the top half of the district.
“I think going game by game, I see the potential and heart is there,” Scott said. “We just have to put our words into action and show that we know what we’re doing.”
