The Taylor Lady Ducks defeated the Caldwell Lady Hornets 57-41 Tuesday night for their fourth district win of the season.
The Lady Ducks were again playing shorthanded playing without starter Kionayh Rivers, but that did not stop the Lady Ducks from executing on both ends of the court to come out with a win.
The game started strong for the Lady Ducks defensively as they limited Caldwell and their offense to only three points in the first quarter. The strong defense led to offense for the Lady Ducks scoring 14 points of their own and taking a big 14-3 lead into the second quarter.
Caldwell came out in the second quarter looking to flip the script, and did exactly that with six quick points to start the second to make it a 14-9 game. Caldwell’s defense also started to step up as well in the second quarter holding the Lady Ducks to no points for the first half of the second quarter.
The Lady Ducks finally knocked a shot down, which got their offense in a rhythm, but Caldwell still ended up outscoring the Lady Ducks 14-8 in the second quarter leaving the game at 23-17 at halftime.
“It is frustrating sometimes but, we just have to get better at doing those little things consistently and not take our foot off the gas,” said Lady Ducks head coach Lawrence Bailey. “We can’t let teams back into games, but we cleaned it up in the second half and we’ll keep getting better.”
The Lady Ducks did clean up their offense in the second half capitalizing on every opportunity they had in the third quarter. Led by veterans, senior Aliyana Chavis and junior Ansley Reed, the Lady Ducks scored 17 points in the third quarter while Caldwell scored 13 points putting the game at 40-30 heading into the fourth.
Chavis and Reed continued to buzz on offense consistently scoring inside the paint for the Lady Ducks helping them rebuild their lead to double digits in the third. Bailey said having players who can consistently score in close has been a blessing this season.
“When you can play great defense and hit those easy layups, you are going to win a lot of games, and to have our two leaders do exactly that and lead by example is really special,” Bailey said.
Chavis and Reed continued to dominate in the fourth with both players finishing with double digit points. Reed finished the game with 20 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and three steals while Chavis had 16 points and seven rebounds.
In addition to Chavis and Reed’s great game, Sophia Fisher had an explosive game scoring 11 points along with nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block. All three players played 30 or more minutes Tuesday and made the most of their opportunity.
After the win Bailey said his team has a chip on their shoulder and is looking to quiet a lot of doubters.
“A lot of people had us finishing last in the district and this is a scrappy group. You look at the last two games and see what we have done without one of our starters, and you see we aren’t messing around,” Bailey said. “Once we get fully healthy again, which will be very soon, a lot of people are going to see exactly how good we are.”
The Lady Ducks will have that opportunity again on Friday, Jan. 13, When they travel to Smithville to battle the Tigers in a district matchup.
