The music is loud, the gym is full, and you are reminded you are about to play the most important game of the season. You look at the scoreboard to see 7:30 left before the start of an extremely important game. You look toward your coach beaming with pride and your teammates who are feeling all the same feelings of excitement and anxiety all at the same time. All of a sudden you hear the buzzer go off, and you know it is game time.
The Lady Kings hope to experience this on Saturday, as they work their way through the Postseason sectional bracket. The Kings first defeated the Lady Comets, and will now play the Lady Squires. When they win this game, they will then play the winner of the game between the Lady Eagles of Oak Hill and the Lady Zebras of Rochester. Coach Amor had this to say about the draw, “We got the best possible draw. Any team that has to go through Rochester, Oak Hill, and Wabash to win a sectional is going to have the toughest battle. Anything can happen this week, but we have confidence heading into our first two games knowing that we’ve beat both Eastern and Manchester.” The Lady Kings beat the Comets, but Manchester, Oak Hill, and Rochester all bring challenges. Coach Amor added, “Almost every team in our sectional was a battle. We only beat Manchester by 3. We lost to Oak Hill by 2, Rochester by 2, and Wabash by 3. Each of those teams brings unique challenges. Ultimately, our biggest challenge is playing consistently. We’ve rarely strung together 4 solid quarters (this season). If we do that against any of those teams, Cass is going to have a great week.”
The Lady Kings will not let those losses discourage them and are ready to battle for the sectional championship. This sectional will be hosted at home at Cass. Senior, Mylie Sipe was asked how it feels to play her final sectional on her home court and said, “It’s an amazing feeling being able to play on our home court. It would be a surreal feeling to cut down the nets that we’ve been practicing on all season.”
As the season has gone on, tough games were played, and experience was gained. Coach Amor was asked how experience in the regular season will help in the postseason and said, “We’ve played in a lot of close games. We have grown through all of those ups and downs of the season. I think experiences like the Cass County Tournament and the Carroll Holiday Tournament will help us this week.” Coach Amor said his goals for the post-season are, “We obviously want to make a deep semi-state run like we did a year ago, but winning our Sectional is the only goal in our sights. We’ll worry about next week, next week.” Mylie Sipe added, “My personal goals for this postseason are to cut down our home nets and to enjoy the lasting moments I have with this amazing team.”
Success is most definitely within reach for the Lady Kings as they face the Manchester Lady Squires on Friday Night. Coach Amor said, “Manchester is really good. They have good guards, they play really tough man-to-man defense. It was a low-scoring 33-30 victory vs them in the 2nd game of our season. We are going to have to really bring it Friday night to make it to the championship on Saturday.”
If victory is claimed over the Lady Squires then they will face either the Lady Zebras or the Lady Eagles. Junior point guard, Anna Hedrick was asked what she thinks the biggest challenge this game will bring, “I think my personal challenge when facing either one of these teams is staying calm and under control. When playing these teams in the regular season we often found ourselves speeding the game up and getting slightly out of control, so being able to stay calm will benefit us.”Anna said the team has been preparing for this big game by, “I’ve been preparing for these games during practice, going over other schools’ plays and finding ways to beat their defense. I’ve also been working on ball handling because of each team’s intense pressure they put on the ball. It has been a long week, but I think our coaches and other teammates have prepared the varsity for our big competition we will be facing.”
All in all, success is most definitely within reach for the Lady Kings. They are experienced, and ready to play their hearts out, no matter which opponent they face. Their losses throughout the season have helped them face adversity and still set forward on the road to success. Come support the Lady Kings Friday night at six and then Saturday at 7:30. Good Luck Lady Kings!
