.jpg)
The Huddle
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Huddle where this week we are talking about the Rice Lady Raiders basketball team.
At the time of writing this the Lady Raiders have one more game left on their schedule against Tidehaven, and they only have one win to their name.
A 1-25 record overall and winless in district, it is safe to say the Lady Raiders had a tough season. We’re not going to look at the record though because here’s the thing, yes the numbers don’t lie, that’s what the Lady Raiders produced this season, but they don’t define this team.
Which brings us to the whole point of me writing this, because I hate numbers for this exact reason. Most people see those numbers and say, “Oh they only won one game they must have been a bad team,” and that’s unfair.
It is unfair because this team had only one or two players that have legit varsity experience, and the rest were playing junior varsity last season.
For those that are unaware of this but the jump from junior varsity to varsity is a big one. The time and space players have at the JV level is completely taken away at the varsity level.
The Lady Raiders’ inexperience was noticeable and some of their games were a little frustrating to watch. Despite their inexperience this team genuinely got better every time that I had the privilege to watch them.
Seeing players like Jordyn and Diamond Fuller being tasked with being the paint presence and competing in the rebound battle every night. Rebounding was something that got exponentially better this season for the Lady Raiders because of those two.
They were up against seniors that have three or four years of experience, and they never backed down. In fact, that rose to the challenge so much that they ended up winning the rebound battle in most games towards the end of the year.
Aleah Conejo and Lia Beccera also had a really difficult task of being a guard at the varsity level. Guards need to be able to defend, score and facilitate plays. That’s a tall order for seniors to imagine how tough it is for freshman.
They started the year struggling a lot, like every other play was a turnover and the opposition was running up the score. But towards the end of the year, they were the team’s best defenders and were even making plays and kept games close down the stretch.
So, yea this team only won one game but that does not tell the full story of this team who will be eager to get back onto the court next season to prove everyone wrong.
