Basketball coaches, almost in unison, like to talk about playing well at the end of the season.
It seems the Winder-Barrow High School Lady Bulldoggs are following that strategy to the letter. Coach Brenda Hill’s squad has now won its past four games, including a somewhat unusal 13-9 win Saturday against Heritage.
Other wins in the current streak include victories against Cedar Shoals (48-40), Habersham Central (44-32) and Gainesville (44-31).
“I’ve never coached a game like the one against Heritage,” Hill said with a laugh. “It does happen I guess. It was not a very exciting game to watch or play in.”
The main thing, Hill realizes, is her team manages to escape with the win.
“Our kids are starting to put things together,” the coach said. “We are beginning to manage the clock. A month ago we would have lost some of these close games.”
In Friday’s win against Cedar Shoals, Hill said the Lady Bulldoggs played well in the first half but came out a little flat in the third quarter.
“We started playing their brand of basketball which made me nervous,” she said. “Still, our shot selection was really good in the second half and that gave our kids a big boost of confidence.”
Mimi Hill finished with 23 points and 11 rebounds Friday while Brittany Witt added nine points.
The team did not play Tuesday and has had all week to prepare for an always tough Madison County squad Friday before meeting county rival Apalachee, who has probably its best team in school history, Saturday.
“We will try and get a few things worked out,” Hill said. “We actually need to work on getting in better shape. We plan on concentrating on conditioning this week. Our kids are picking up on the little things. We’ve had balanced scoring the last four games which I always like to see.”