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Sports |
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Local teams begin second half of season tonight TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff Writer Jan. 25, 2002 - The first half of the conference season is over. Some of the local teams are in position to jockey for a playoff spot. Lincolnton lost its first five games of the before finally before it finally started getting things together. The Wolves are 4-8 overall but 4-3 in Midwest 2A Conference play. This team feels it can get one of the conference’s four playoff spots. forward Jeremy Degree said “We’re working hard,” said forward Jeremy Degree. “We’re trying to focus and get back in the playoffs. This next time around in conference we’re going to try (to win them all). All our conference games have been close.” The Wolves suffered a tough loss to East Rutherford after leading at halftime. Tonight, they will try to beat Newton-Conover, a team that defeated them in December in Lincolnton. The Lady Wolves are looking good (6-5, 5-2). Coach Sheila Barker said the team is coming together and getting better. “We’re playing and keep improving,” she said. “We’re hoping we can get better. We’re in good shape as far as the playoffs. The conference takes four and we’re in fourth place. Our goal is to finish as high as we can. Andrea Stroup, Lauren Bartholomew are pretty consistent and are the leader,” Barker added. “Lindsey Sain and freshman Shantae Shank are coming along well. All the girls have contributed. I’ve seen improvement we’re doing OK.” West Lincoln teams both won just three games this year. Despite being much more competitive in a tougher conference, wins are still hard to come by. Not having experienced players hurt too. West Lincoln coach Allen Hoyle took over a team with one player who had a lot of previous varsity experience. This year’s has two freshman and three sophomores getting a lot of playing time. “We don’t have experience, he said. “But we’re making progress. We’re understanding the game better. Our confidence is growing. We’re trying to work on being patient. We’re putting in a new offense.” The same thing is going on for the boys. Jason Kingery, West Lincoln boys coach said the team is making strides. “We’re trying to find ourselves,” he said. “We’re trying to find a mesh. We could have been 9-2 but we ended 5-6. We cause turnovers when we don’t make our shots. The kids are working hard and improving.” Over to the east, the Mustangs have played their Big South 3A Conference foes well. Just haven’t gotten the W’s they could have. East Lincoln (7-5, 3-3) boys played East Gaston to the wire before falling. They defeated Forestview in the First Charter Holiday Classic but lost to the Jaguars the following week in conference play. Those two losses would have changed things completely. However, the Mustangs are still in the hunt. “We’re playing very well,” said Mustangs coach Neil Hodges. “We hope we can continue to improve. We have improved so much and worked very hard. We need a couple of more breaks in the second half. I hope we can work hard and get better. Our confidence is good.” Hodges said the team’s goal is to get back-to-back winning seasons which has never been done at the school. He said the team has only make the playoffs once. This year’s squad is on the way. The conference sends four to the playoffs. The Lady Mustangs have stumbled out of the conference gate (4-11, 1-5) but head coach Brian Lytton said the team is capable of getting some big wins down the stretch. “I think we have a good chance,” Lytton said. “We’re competitive. Last year, we weren’t competitive at all. We’re still learning how to win. “We’ve done a good job of defense but our offensive production is down,” he continued. “The girls are working hard. We’re optimistic. We’re not hanging our heads.”
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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