Prior to his team’s game with Dillard High School Monday, Lady Raider coach Dan Lampe had heard reports that this Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., team possibly ranked as high as no. 3 nationally.
After the Lady Raiders played these out-of-state foes, he said that could very well be the case.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if they were the no. 3 team in the nation,” Lampe said.
Madison County suffered its most lopsided loss in the past few years, falling 80-51 to the talented Florida team in Hart County’s holiday tournament.
The loss dropped Madison County to 9-4 heading into the tournament finale against Stephens County Tuesday. Results of that game weren’t available at press time due to early holiday deadlines.
Madison County trailed Dillard 23-9 after a quarter and couldn’t recover.
Lampe said the team reminded him — somewhat — of one of Madison County’s subregion rivals.
“I kind of thought of them kind of like Clarke Central on steroids,” Lampe said. “They were bigger, faster, stronger than Clarke Central but played the exact same style.”
Lampe said Dillard possessed several Division I players, including an outstanding guard.
“What it does, it shows us how much work we have left to do,” Lampe said. “I like playing teams like this.”
Though the outcome was lopsided, Lampe saw some merit in the game. He said this loss was probably more beneficial than some of its blow-out wins.
“It’s kind of weird to say, but I’d much rather play like this and have the outcome than us play a game where we beat a team by 30 or 40 points,” he said. “You only get better by playing teams that are better.”
Not that he wasn’t concerned about the loss.
Madison County missed a ton of lay-ups. In fact, Lampe noted an interesting stat. Had the Lady Raiders converted all their lay-up chances, they would have been tied with Dillard heading into the fourth quarter.
Instead, Madison County trailed 59-37.
Lampe also said the team is lacking a certain flow on offense that it possessed last year.
“I right now I’m just focused on getting everything cohesive,” Lampe said.
