The Lady Rebels of North Sunflower Academy hit the road to open the 2024-2025 roundball season in Belzoni. The young team hung tough early in both the JV and varsity games but didn’t have enough minutes left to spare to find the win against Humphreys Academy. “We lost both of them by about 12 or 13 points,” Head Coach Jeff Andrews said. “In junior high we had a lead at halftime and just let it slip away from us at the end.” The varsity game was just about the same song and dance with the same end result. “We were trailing by one at halftime and then it kind of got away from us too. We just ran out of gas. Only having three high school players and the rest of the juniors had already played four quarters and then they had to play two more quarters each and I just ran out of bodies.” With such a young team, Coach Andrews is seeing them learning and competing. “I was really proud of them. We have really improved so much over last year. They’re starting to understand what it's going to take to win games. We played good for one half. We’ve got to learn to close it up and finish it.” Looking at the loss, Coach Andrews has spent the week of practice trying to iron out the problems he saw on the court against the HA Rebels. “We had a lot of unforced errors. It’s just some growing pains. We just got to play cleaner in the second half is basically what it's going to amount to. And I've got to figure out a substitute pattern of how to try to save some of my junior high players for the high school. We played such a close game in the junior high that I had to play them all four quarters. All my starters had to play four quarters. And then my starters actually are the starters on the high school team, too. We're going to have to figure out a rotation of how we can save some of those players.” And to continue to compete, he’s working on his teams’ endurance. “We're working on conditioning. That's a big part of it. We just weren't conditioned enough to be able to do what we're trying to do for a game and a half for most of the players.” The Rebels haven’t played a game yet as HA was competing in football playoffs and didn’t field a basketball team yet. But Head Coach Anthony Rivera is continually working and preaching and teaching his group of young players. Both the boys and girls teams hosted Deer Creek this past Thursday (not covered due to press time). “Everything's looking on course for this Thursday against Deer Creek,” Coach Rivera said. “I’m looking forward to seeing the guys execute and evaluate what we need to work on, what we need to get better. Getting the chance to see them in live action. We’ve just been sticking to the basics, fundamentals, trying to find a routine that's going to stick with them. Just laying the foundation; going to build it brick by brick. My young guys, they're showing improvement understanding the format. We're going to lead with defense and try to turn that defense into offense.” The Rebels defense will “shorten up the court with some press and get some buckets. Try not to leave any points on the floor. High school with only so many guys and my young guys stepping in, playing as many quarters as they'll possibly play. It's going to be a lot of experience trying to hit the court with them younger guys. They'll grow into the road, I'm sure of it. We continue to push forward. But I'm feeling good. The atmosphere is good with the team. They understand nobody's bigger than the mission. Going in, everybody has a job. Do your job 100%. Play defense. I can't stress that enough. Play defense, communicate out there, run the court. I'm excited about it. And I know they are. So, we're just going to try to get it done.” NSA travels to Deer Creek on Monday, November 18 and then has Thanksgiving break and will be back on the court in December.
