Lady Busters have been rolling in 3-0 season start

11/8/2012

Lady Busters have been rolling in 3-0 season start

By ADAM HOLT

aholt@gctelegram.com

The road to 3-0 hasn't been especially bumpy for the Garden City Community College women's basketball team.

The Lady Broncbusters have won their three games by an average of 48 points, fueled largely by a 106-26 romp over Oklahoma Baptist's junior varsity.

Garden City hasn't played since that big win Saturday, and head coach Alaura Sharp said having a full five days between games can be both good and bad. On the positive side, the Busters got to spend a few days just working on individual skills in practice before moving to game prep later in the week.

But on the other hand, it really is a long time between games.

"That's a lot of days to practice, especially coming off of 3-0, you really weren't challenged, score-wise," Sharp said. "You kind of get a little big full of yourself, I think. We've had to kind of reel them back in."

The Busters are starting to prepare for its two opponents this weekend, in the Pepsi Classic at the Perryman Athletic Complex. Garden City faces two Texas schools: Howard, at 5:30 p.m. Friday, and Frank Phillips, at the same time Saturday.

Despite holding its opponents to a combined 133 points in three games and running a high-flying offense, Garden City does have some things to work on.

Sharp said the Busters focused on taking care of the ball and improving screen action on offense when they got back to working on team concepts in practice on Wednesday.

And while the Busters have been good at pushing the tempo and getting out in transition, Sharp said she thinks they could be better. Garden City has also shot well from behind the arc this season, converting at a 42.4-percent clip so far. Sharp said she'd like the offense to be less reliant on the 3-pointer, and that shouldn't be a problem with two talented post players in Tamara Jones and Shicole Watts.

"I feel like at some point in time, we're not going to be able to rely on the 3-point ball like we have in the last several games," Sharp said. "So finding other ways to score. I think that I would like to continue to improve our transition offense. I think it's been good, but I think we've missed a lot of easy bunnies."

Sharp said that after a good start to the week in practice, the intensity has slipped, and that she just wants to see the Busters bring good energy to the practice floor.

"If you practice at half-speed, you'll play at half-speed," she said. "So that's the biggest thing, is getting us to practice at that full speed."

Sharp noted that Howard and Frank Phillips both play similar styles of offense, which has streamlined game prep.

"Today, we really started implementing Howard's key screen action, some of their favorite things that they like to do," she said. "The nice thing is, their base offense and Frank Phillips' base offense is relatively similar, so we can kind of prep for both teams at the same time without really having to talk about both teams (separately)."

Howard, which is 2-1, and plays at Lamar (Colo.) tonight, is a team that likes to control the tempo and run out of sets. The Busters will try to push the pace and get the Hawks playing faster than they want.

Frank Phillips is 0-3, and will face Dodge City at 1:30 p.m. Friday at Perryman to start the tournament.

Against both opponents, Sharp said the biggest thing the Busters need to work on defensively is limiting fouls. Foul trouble has been an issue for Garden City in its three games, and Sharp said a lot of the fouls the Busters are committing are unnecessary "bailout" fouls.

"There's a difference between an aggressive foul and a silly frustration foul," Sharp said. "We've tried to show them on film, scenarios where we reach in, this is a foul that needs to be eliminated. Obviously, you're gonna have fouls; but it's the amount of fouls and it's the timing of fouls, and the back-to-back-to-back fouls."