Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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January 9, 2009

Winning sectionals is first goal for Big Creek girls basketball team

By JED LOCKETT

BLUEFIELD — Someone might expect that this season would be emotional for the Big Creek girls basketball team. The Owls will have just two seasons until Big Creek High School merges with Iaeger.

But head coach Carson Hale does not believe that will be a factor this season. While it is on their minds, they are still focused on what they need to do this season.

“We’ve talked about it. But we’re just trying to go game to game, try to improve and get ready for our sectionals,” Hale said. “It’s definitely on our mind. Our seniors, not as much because they’re gone after this year. But our freshmen and sophomores, they’re really thinking about it.”

Despite dropping three of their first four games, Hale is not worried. He believes his team has the chance to do great things.

“I’m hoping we’ve got the talent to be a very good team,” Hale said. “We’ve got two juniors and three seniors that start and they’re all returning from last year. If we can just eliminate turnovers we can be as good as anybody.”

Hale has reason to be optimistic. In the past, one of the Owls’ most glaring problems has been their lack of bodies to put on the floor. This season, Hale has what he characterizes as an abundance of players compared to the past.

“Last year, a couple years in the past we played six or seven girls mainly because our numbers were down — which our numbers are up this year,” Hale said. “But we usually will wear out at the end of the game playing five or six players. If I can give those starters a rest, it really helps us out.”

Seniors Santana Benton, Stephanie Hutchinson and Heather Epperson will anchor the Owls’ starting lineup along with juniors Marisa Johnson and Jennifer Hawkins. Hale is counting on two of those seniors, Hutchinson and Benton, to be the heart of the team.

“The one that really steps out to be the leader is Stephanie Hutchinson,” Hale said. “All the girls look for her because she’s our leading scorer, leading rebounder. And they really put a lot of pressure on her.

“She’s very dependable. She started a few games as a freshman. But this is her third full year as a starter and she’s close to 1,000 points, about 180-200 points away.

“Santana, she’s a really physical player. If she gets her shot on, she’s hard to stop. And then Heather, she’s consistent. She does whatever I ask her to do. She usually plays 2 guard. I’ve put her at forward. She’s played at center. She can play every position on the floor.”

Senior Danielle Cabell and freshman Amber Tiller are two guards that Hale relies on for quality minutes off the bench. Hale is looking for big things from Tiller. Although she is green right now, he sees her as having a large upside.

“The freshman Amber Tiller, she is good enough to start,” Hale said. “She’s just a little bit passive right now. She gets a little more aggressive, she’s going to be a really good point guard.”

The Owls will try to run their opponents out of the gym this season. Hale describes his team’s offensive attack as, “A spread offense with a lot of motion.” It sounds like a football attack and Hale carried the parallels even further.

“We’re constantly moving,” he said. “We’re setting screens inside for post players. Our first option is to score inside. But all five of my starters can shoot a 3.

“With our 10 players we try to wear teams down. The more we run, we try to wear them down in the fourth quarter.”

To do that, Hale worked his team hard in the preseason and for the first part of the campaign. He realizes that his team will have to be more athletic if they are to perform their high-octane attack on a high level and a consistent basis.

“We conditioned really hard the first month or two of the season,” Hale said. “We’ve kind-of slacked off a little bit lately trying to work on our passing and our plays.”

Defensively, the Owls will rely on a zone defense to ease the burden from his offense.

“We play pretty much a matchup zone. We stay in the zone but we play man-to-man out of the zone,” Hale said. “We’re trying to keep our girls from getting too tired. They can still play man-to-man but it’s only half-court and we’re not going to chase them all over the court. They’re not assigned to just one person. They’re going to play their zone but they play a man-to-man in that zone.”

The Owls will utilize a full-court press in addition to their main defense. But they will only use it when the situations dictate.

“We’ve done it a little bit here lately. We’ve done it against Mount View and it was pretty successful. We were only up two and we put it on and ended up winning by 19. We use it but we use it sparingly.”

Hale’s goal for the Owls is simple — win a sectional championship. He believes that goal is very realistic.

“Our first team goal is to win sectional,” Hale said. “If we can win sectional we’ll go from there. We should be able to play with any team in the section.”

— Contact Jed Lockett

at jlockett@bdtonline.com

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