Tate-led Lady Devils win against LR Central
Tate-led Lady Devils win against LR Central
Interim coach picks up season-opening victory; Bradley, Hazley shine
WM School District Sonja Tate’s first game as interim head coach mirrored her illustrious career at West Memphis High School in the late 1980s.
On Tuesday night at Lehr Arena, the Lady Devils were a blur on the fastbreak, attacked hard on the defensive end and played with emotion in the team’s 62-46 victory over Little Rock Central.
All of those superlatives described the way the Hall of Famer Tate played for head coach Ron Gean before she made her way to an All-American career at Arkansas State University and a pro career in the WNBA.
“That was great,” said Tate, who is the team’s head coach in the interim after head coach Shelia Burns suffered a brain aneurysm in October.
After losing her speech and movement on her right side, Burns has made amazing progress in the last few weeks. She has regained her speech and movement. She is still in a rehab facility in Jonesboro. In the meantime, Tate has apparently put her own stamp on the Lady Devils’ outfit.
The West Memphis girls led for nearly the whole game, but Central kept it close. The Lady Devils clung to a 44-42 lead after three quarters before putting on the jets in the final eight minutes.
The team’s top inside player, junior center Tierra Bradley, took a nasty fall after being fouled on an offensive rebound. The crowd at Lehr came to a hush as Bradley writhed in pain for a few minutes as Tate left the bench to tend to Bradley.
After she was helped to her feet, Bradley was forced to leave the game because Tate came to her aid without calling a timeout. Her replacement at the free-throw line, senior forward Kenya Freeman, split two free throws.
“T-Baby came down on her ankle and she twisted it,” Tate said. “That would have been a big loss for us.
I think she’ll be OK in a few days.”
The Lady Devils proceeded to hit their stride from there, outscoring the Lady Tigers 18-4 in the fourth quarter, not allowing a single field goal along the way.
“Our goal on defense each game is to allow 10 points or less each quarter,” Tate stated. “We didn’t do that through the first three quarters, but we finally did in the fourth quarter. That was a great job on defense.”
Also hitting her stride in the fourth quarter was all-state junior guard Aryah Hazley, who scored a game-high 18 points. She followed up Freeman’s free throw with eight of her team’s next 14 points to extend the Lady Devil lead to 58-42 with 4:24 left to play.
At times last season, partly out of necessity, Hazley would try to do too much and force things. On Tuesday night, she let the game come to her.
“I sat down before the game and talked to her,” Tate said. “We talked about how instead of playing in a big chunk, I wanted her to break it down quarter by quarter. If we need 20 points from you, then this is how we gotta get it.
She played very patiently tonight.”
Hazley also played her part as the team’s distributor, throwing an 80-foot assist to sophomore Ta’Nya Burnett, who scored 10 points.
Freeman and junior guard Jamee Gholson added 9 points apiece for the Lady Devils while Bradley had 6.
The Lady Devils will return to action on Nov. 27 at Little Rock Parkview before playing in the Greene County Tech Invitational Nov. 29-Dec. 1.
By Billy Woods
