Lady Hawks off to 2-1 start in 2008-09 season
Iowa Park High School’s Lady Hawk basketball team defeated Graham on Friday 35-20, then lost to unbeaten Wichita Falls Old High Tuesday 48-24.

The Lady Hawks will host Holliday Tuesday (JV and varsity) starting at 5 p.m., hoping to improve on their 2-1 start in the 2008-09 season.

Iowa Park jumped on Graham early, building a 13-6 lead in the first period, and taking a 15-8 lead into intermission.

The Lady Hawks added two points to their lead after three period, and outscored the Lady Blues 11-6 in the final period for the 35-20 win.

Presley Gann led in scoring with nine, while Megan Walls added eight, Whitney James seven (including two three-pointers), and Amanda Fuhrman six. The Lady Hawks went 8-for-19 at the free throw line.

Iowa Park improved to 2-0 on the season with the win.

“I think our defense was pretty solid, and doing some good things,” said Coach Jacinda Langen of the win over Graham. “Our offense struggled a little bit.

“We came out that first game against Olney and lit it up, and shot well,” she continued. “We didn’t shoot as well against Graham. We need to get more confidence, and settle down a little more. And do better at the free throw line, obviously.”

LOSS TO OLD HIGH
Physical play has been the trademark for Old High in their so-far unbeaten season, including wins over 5-3A foes Burkburnett and Vernon, and Tuesday night’s 48-24 thumping of Iowa Park.

“We didn’t do what we needed to do on offense at all,” said Langen. “Old High was very physical.”

The Lady Coyotes built a 10-4 first period lead, and outscored the Lady Hawks 15-8 in the second, 8-4 in the third, and 15-8 in the final period.

Gann scored six points to lead Iowa Park, followed by Joey Drury with five, and Whitney James three.
The Lady Hawks shot 9-of-15 from the charity line.

“I thought Presley did a great job on (Janette) Merriex,” Langen said of Gann’s assignment to cover the best player on the Old High squad. “She had five points at halftime. Then Presley got into a little foul trouble, and she ended up with 10 more in the second half.

“But, more than anything, what hurt us was I didn’t feel like the rest of us helped out where we needed to,” said Langen.

“We gave up too many offensive rebounds. And Old High played tougher than we did.”

Old High’s physical play, and Iowa Park’s reluctance to join in, ended up hurting the Lady Hawk offensive effort, said Langen.

“I told them after the game we need to make sure we don’t make dumb fouls, but when it gets physical we have to get physical back,” she said. “We can’t let ourselves get pushed around, and when we did, that hurt our offense.

“We can’t have a finesse type of offense,” said Lange. “We have to use our speed and our height, and we didn’t do that at all.”

The Lady Hawks scored all their points in the final period on free throws.

“You can’t beat anybody when you are doing that,” said Langen. “We missed a lot of easy shots. And it’s still early. I’m confident enough our offense will come around. Those are some of the things you can fix.

“But being more physical ... that’s something that should happen no matter what, whether it’s early or late in the season,” Langen remarked. “We are going to have a very physical district. If we want to be competitive, we are going to have to get tougher.”

Aside from the lack of physical style so far, Langen is pleased with what she is seeing from the Lady Hawks.
“We shoot the ball well,” she said. “We handled the ball well. When it comes down to fundamentals, we do some really good things.”