by Rusty Ellis
The Livingston Academy Lady Wildcats continued their excellent start to the season on Tuesday, as they used a stout defensive effort in the second half to defeat Macon County 44-31.
It was back-and-forth early, as 10 first-quarter points from Ellie Butler led the Lady Wildcats to a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.
Macon County battled back to start the second however, as a 7-1 run gave the Tigerettes a 15-14 lead with just over five minutes to go in the first half. Livingston did just enough offensively to take a lead into halftime, as they led Macon 22-21 at the break.
The third quarter saw the Lady Wildcats turn up the pressure, and seven quick points from Mallie Carwile helped give Livingston a 35-25 lead entering the fourth, and LA outscored Macon 9-6 there to hold on for the victory.
Butler paced Livingston with a game-high 21 points, while Carwile’s seven third-quarter points aided in a second-half defensive effort that saw LA surrender just 10 total points.
And it was a half that head coach Lesley Riddle says was much-improved from the first.
“The first half, we kind of just allowed them to do what they wanted to do,” Riddle said. “We’re not the team right now that can score 60, 70 points, we’ve got to hold some people down and create some offense with our defense. I think we started doing that in the second half.”
Carwile gave the Lady Wildcats a lift when they needed it in the third, and it’s no surprise to Riddle, who had higher expectations for the junior guard coming into the season.
“She’s a really good shooter,” Riddle said. “She’s just having to get the rhythm back and getting back used to the game speed, but we expect that from her…her shooting will continue to get better for us, but when she’s got time to get the shot off, she can make them consistently.”
There are still some question marks for Riddle to answer about her depth and who she can go to in crunch time this season, but she says she feels like she’s learned quite a bit about this team through the first couple games.
“We’re still learning, there’s several people I’m comfortable playing in big minutes,” Riddle said. “We’ve got to keep getting better. The schedule doesn’t get any easier, so we can’t let up and we have to keep improving.”
The Wildcats followed the girls up with a dominant 77-39 win over the Tigers, a game that Livingston set a defensive tone for from the start.
Early, Macon County struggled just to get into their offense against the Livingston Academy press, and it showed on the scoreboard in the form of a 22-9 lead for the Wildcats.
Things didn’t get any easier for the Tigers in the second, as LA limited the Tigers to just nine more points and only 18 points for the half. Coupling that with the Wildcats’ success at getting into their transition offense, and it added up to a 37-18 lead for Livingston.
The visitors exploded on offense in the third quarter, scoring 25 points, capped off by a Tucker Miller three just before the horn to give LA a 62-30 lead, and the Wildcats cruised to the 77-39 victory from there.
Wyatt Hargis led the way with 16 points on an efficient 6-7 shooting from the floor, while Daniel Bilbrey added 13 points of his own. Rocco Carwile and Miller each poured in 10 points of their own in the dominant win for head coach Jimmy Miller.
“That’s what we came up and tried to do, defend hard from the jump and force them to make plays to beat us,” Miller said. “Their inside game worried us, so we had to do a good job with our help-side defense, so I was pleased with the overall defensive effort tonight.”
The win moves the Wildcats to 4-0, and through these first four games, Miller is seeing both a plethora of positives, as well as things that need attention in practice.
Chief among that is the fact that Miller feels like he’s putting a much more experienced team on the floor, unlike last year where many players had to step into new roles.
“I feel like our guys are more seasoned this year,” Miller said. “It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to put some guys on the floor that have been in these situations before…I think that’s helping them some, there’s still plenty we can do better. As good as our district is, we’ve got to be at our best if we want to compete like we think we can.”
And among the things he wants to focus on, the main critique Miller had for his players on Tuesday was their rebounding.
“We’ve got to rebound better, we’ve got to block out better,” Miller said. “I think sometimes, we get caught watching and that’s not as disciplined as I would like for us to be.”
The two teams will have a couple days off before their next action, as the Wildcats will take part in the Siegel Thanksgiving Tournament on Friday against Providence Christian. The Lady Wildcats will resume their play in the Farragut Thanksgiving Tournament against Gatlinburg-Pittman.
Macon will head to Clay County for their next double-header on Nov. 28.
