‘They weren’t frazzled.’ Lafayette aims to horn into 11th Region girls hoops conversation.
A few minutes into the Lafayette girls basketball team’s home game against Lexington Christian on Friday night, it became apparent that there’s something different about this edition of coach Allison Tate Denton’s Generals.
There’s a calmness about them that comes from being a veteran team with five seniors and every starter back from last season.
“It’s very calm,” said senior forward Belle Combs, who averages a double-double while leading the team in scoring and rebounding. She tied younger sister Addi with a team-high 19 points against LCA. “We’ve played with each other for a long time, so we know what we’re doing, and we know what she (Denton) expects.”
Lafayette begins January with a 10-0 record and three wins in the 43rd District already under its belt, including a 53-33 rout of defending district champion Tates Creek.
That’s an exceptional start, but Denton and her players know significant challenges lie ahead. The 11th Region includes Herald-Leader preseason No. 3 Franklin County, No. 14 Frederick Douglass and an undefeated Madison Central squad lurking down in Richmond.
“I know that we’re not picked to win a region, but why not?” Denton said, noting that her team recently won a game in which it made only two of more than 20 3-point shots, proof of its perseverance. “We just have so many little things that we have to keep working on that if we can get the pace of the game to correlate with their mind and slow their mind down, they can be pretty good.”
The maturity of this season’s Generals became apparent after it fell behind 6-0 on back-to-back 3-pointers by ever-improving LCA (10-3, 2-1) on Friday. By the end of the quarter, Lafayette led 17-11 and built the lead to as many as 24 points as the game wore on.
“They weren’t frazzled by it,” Denton said of the slow start. “Every game somebody hits a 3 on us to start and I say, ‘They’re 3-point shooters,’ … but I trust them. I’ve got a great point guard. I’ve got a great inside player. I’ve got great shooting guards.”
The Combs sisters each grabbed 10 rebounds as Lafayette dominated LCA in the paint. Junior point guard Anna Clay Denton dished out 12 assists to go with seven points and senior forward Tess Nelson added 15 points by making seven of her nine shot attempts.
Lafayette held LCA to 27.7% shooting from the field and outrebounded the Eagles 39-25. Ella Gabbert led LCA with 11 points.
“For us, it was just pushing the ball,” Combs said. “We’ve been doing a lot of work just pushing it and communicating with each other. … We have one goal and one goal only, and that is to win. We just want to win. That’s how we push ourselves.”
Despite some puzzling losses last season, Lafayette earned the top seed in the 43rd District Tournament but lost in the district finals to Tates Creek and then got ousted from the 11th Region Tournament by Douglass.
Denton wants this season’s team to have no regrets. Whatever the outcome, she expects the Generals to give it their all.
“We’re just trying to take advantage of every moment,” Denton said. “I say this about a lot of my teams, but they’re such a good group. They really love each other, and they’ve been such a pleasure to coach, and we’re just trying to soak it in.”
A wintry week ahead
▪ Last season’s girls 11th Region All “A” Classic champion Lexington Christian and boys champ Sayre (7-4) are scheduled to defend their titles this week in the small-school tournament regional at Frankfort Christian Academy, weather permitting.
The year’s first winter storm is forecast to hit Sunday night, putting LCA’s first-round game Monday against Frankfort in jeopardy. Sayre gets a bye into Thursday’s boys semifinals.
The girls classic finals are scheduled for 2 p.m Saturday and are to be followed by the boys finals at FCA in Frankfort.
The statewide boys and girls All “A” Classic events are scheduled Jan. 22-26 at the Owensboro Sportscenter.
▪ Frederick Douglass (8-3) is set to host girls preseason No. 2 George Rogers Clark (4-5) on Friday.
Clark’s Ciara Byars, a Michigan signee, hasn’t yet taken the floor this season. She suffered a knee injury at this time last year that ended her junior season.
But Byars is expected to return to the lineup as soon as this week. Without her, the Cardinals lost all but one of their out-of-state holiday tournament games last month.
The Broncos have suffered close losses to two of the state’s best teams — 63-60 to No. 5 Assumption on Dec. 7 and 51-49 to Franklin County on Dec. 14 — plus a loss to a Florida team on their holiday tournament trip.
▪ Franklin County (10-3) is scheduled to host its annual Simpson’s Tree Service/H N W Sports Classic showcase on Jan. 11 that will include preseason No. 5 Assumption, No. 6 Cooper and No. 13 Notre Dame.
The best game of the day could be Notre Dame (8-2) versus Madison Central (13-0) at 4:45 p.m. The Flyers will take on Simon Kenton (10-2) at 3:15 p.m.
