Lady Trojans continue hot start, cruise to 65-26 victory over York

New Kent’s Emily Ward (left) drives around York’s Mallorie Smith for an easy fourth quarter basket.

Robb Johnson photo

Looking to bounce back from a down year, New Kent’s Lady Trojans’ basketball team turned to James Montgomery to return the program to prominence after former head coach Neko Burson elected to take a position elsewhere. Needless to say, Montgomery’s belief of player-to-player defense for the entire length of the court was evident in Friday night’s contest against the York Lady Falcons.

Dominating from the get go, New Kent cruised to a 65-26 victory in the Bay Rivers District contest.

In the first half, Alline Alexander showed off her offensive touch as she scored 16 points in the first half, four more than the entire York team. Meanwhile, her teammates joined in as they knocked down four three-pointers and catapulted to a 34-12 halftime lead.

From there it was about the depth of the Lady Trojans. Subbing players in and out, all 13 players took part in wearing down York’s roster. Meanwhile, 10 New Kent players were able to contribute to the scoring column as a running clock factored into the remainder of the contest.

For Montgomery, his goal is to speed up the game to discombobulate opponents and force them into making mistakes.

“We are trying to build an identity and we want to play fast, so we are pressing people 94-feet,” he commented after the game. “That is a hard thing to do when you haven’t done it in a while so just trying to instill that mentality, no matter who is in the game playing and on each possession.

“Our girls have bought in on day one and you can see it no matter what is going on because they play hard,” Montgomery added. “Building depth is important because we want those younger players to get involved and this makes the game a little easier when you play 70 to 80 possessions a game instead of 20, 30, or 40. Those mistakes don’t feel as heavy, and you want to create the mentality to have them play through the mistakes.”

Alexander’s 23 points led New Kent (3-0) in the scoring column. Emily Ward also finished in double figures with 10, Joselyn Slosjarik tossed in eight, Evie Davenport contributed six, Alivia Snow and Tiffany Baca-Darden both added five, Brie Otey scored four, and the duo of Vanessa Cooper and Reagan Smith chipped in with two apiece.