Lady Dragons see return of senior post from injury
Carroll’s girls basketball program is gaining health. Senior post Madison Drescher returned to the lineup on Dec. 16 against Haltom and Dec. 19 against L.D. Bell. Drescher played about half of each game and appeared to show no signs of difficulty from the sprained ankle she suffered in November.
Carroll beat Haltom, 57-40, and then beat L.D. Bell, 60-29. The Lady Dragons (12-6, 2-0 in District 7-6A) played in the Surf N Slam Tournament earlier this week in San Diego. Drescher scored four points against Haltom and pulled down four rebounds against L.D. Bell.
“Madison is a great competitor and knows how to get rebounds and stay on the block,” Carroll coach Teri Morrison said. “But I really liked what I saw from her. She moved pretty well and ran the floor fine. So those were really good signs. Things that we can use going forward.”
Obviously, Carroll is still without Juls Grubbs, who is out with a knee injury. Morrison said she hoped Grubbs would be available for the San Diego tournament.
Drescher’s return only helped from the standpoint that it helps the post rotation and spreads the minutes. That takes some of the workload off junior Anna Hurlburt and senior Sarah Williams. Instead of splitting 32 minutes between two players, Morrison can down divide it between three.
A new defense
Zone defense and Carroll have always seemed to be a mismatch. They Lady Dragons just didn’t employ it. Their way of doing business has been pressure followed by man defense.
But something changed following the team’s up-and-down performance in the Pflugerville tournament earlier this month. Although Carroll went 3-2 in that tournament, there were enough defensive concerns to where Morrison is now starting to use a match-up zone.
“Right now, it’s the strength for us,” Morrison said. “We were not doing a great job of rebounding and getting back at defensive transition. There were just too many times we were caught out of position. So that’s why I went to the change.
“We are long and tall and it takes away gaps and coverages. So we saw a tone that we could set by doing this. Plus, what this does is give Kennedy (Leonard) and Priscilla (Smeenge) a chance to be successful on what we can do on offense. It’s a good helping defense, and you know where your teammates are going to be ready.”
The perfect schedule
Carroll has kept to its tradition of traveling out of state every other year during the Christmas holidays. Two years ago, the team went to Hawaii.
On Sunday-Wednesday, the Lady Dragons went to Sand Diego for the Surf N Slam Holiday Classic. It’s a bracket tournament. Carroll landed on Friday, played Saturday against a team from Kentucky, didn’t play Sunday and then played on Monday and Tuesday.
“It’s one of the strangest brackets I’ve ever seen, but the important thing is that we’re going to see some great competition,” Morrison said. “What I also like about this is that you’re playing one game per day and not playing several games in one day. And I think you’re fresher when you get back into district play.”
It really sets up well for Carroll. District 7-6A play resumes on Saturday, but that’s when the Lady Dragons have their bye. They don’t play again until Jan. 6 against Coppell.
This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 1:52 PM with the headline "Lady Dragons see return of senior post from injury."