Lady Greyhounds playing well early in hoops season

Lady Greyhounds playing well early in hoops season

ASU Mid- South basketball squad look to continue winning after hot start

sports@theeveningtimes.com

The ASU Mid-South women's basketball team begins the 2016-2017 season with a 5-2 record.

Head Coach Sonja Tate looks to expand on last year's season in which the Lady Greyhounds won more games than any other season in team history. The key to increasing their win total for a second straight season lies in players buying into the system of play Tate would like the women to run.

“They are starting to understand what I'm asking of them,” Tate said. “The players are buying into understanding the system we're trying to get them to run.”

One of those players is sophomore forward Samantha Jackson. Jackson averages 15.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game this season. Jackson serves an important role to the Lady Greyhounds success, according to Tate.

“She's been huge to us, and 15 points is easy for her to get,” Tate said.

“That's something that we've expected from her.

When she says in her mind that she's going to go out and dominate a game, it's easy for her to do. She goes hard in practice and she's getting the benefits from that in the games.”

Although Jackson leads the team in many areas, the Lady Greyhounds rely heavily on a team effort.

All six starters are averaging over 10 points a game, and four players average over two assists per game.

The community effort as a team is something Tate talks about to her players often and plays a pivotal role in whether or not the team ends a game victorious, according to Tate.

“When we play unselfish and are playing for the person next to us, I think that makes for a winning atmosphere,” Tate said.

“Making the extra pass helps with our confidence and with being ready to play.”

The Lady Greyhounds have been ready to play in each of their last four games, winning each game by an average of 34.3 women's lofty average margin of defeat to a fast and aggressive style of play.

“When you play aggressively offensively and defensively you're going to get a lot of turnovers and a lot of easy scores,” Tate out on the court and really wreak havoc. It's kind of that old 40 minutes of hell style play. I've tried to lay off teams and not press before, but that's just not our game.”

The Lady Greyhounds have nine more home games this regular season.

Tate expects fans to be very entertained by the team's style of play.

“We have a very uptempo and very aggressive style of play,” Tate said.

“We're going to go hard for 40 minutes. We're just an attacking press style of team. We go out and try to have fun. When you win, you have fun.”

Tate and the Lady Greyhounds look to continue their winning ways at home Saturday against Rhema College at 2 p.m.

By Collins Peeples