By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
It has been a tough start to the season for Southwest Covenant’s Lady Patriots.
The team is looking to turn that round in 2020.
The Lady Patriots played only three games in the 2019 portion of the season and went 0-3. SWCS will look to end that streak on Tuesday night and on into the week in the Hammon Tournament.
The Lady Patriots got off to a late start to the season (with the volleyball team competing in the state tournament and head coach Terry Fellenstein also pulling double duty as the defensive coordinator of the football team that reached the class C quarterfinals).
SWCS again fields a young team with only three seniors (but all three starters) and four juniors, and Fellenstein said it has taken his team some time to gel.
The team is coming off their best game of the season, a 49-45 loss to Little Axe, a game that the Lady Patriots had chances to win. All three of the SWCS games have been on the road and the team’s first home game will be on Jan. 7, hosting old rival Oklahoma Christian Academy from Edmond.
“We have spent this time off during the holidays working on getting into better shape,” Fellenstein said. “We weren’t in really good shape for those three games and we have spent time getting into better playing shape. In our last game it affected us turning the ball over on passes. Some of that was also inexperience and working on getting the ball to where it belonged.
“We have also spent our time working on our shooting,” he said. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well in our first three games, except for Kylie (Moseley). We will practice the week after Christmas and do have a scrimmage set up with Hinton on Friday. We may also get a scrimmage in with Corn Bible Academy as well, we are working on getting that set.
“We did have some practice time during the football season, coach (Kacie) Waugh) and Julie (Moseley) worked with them and I did get to spend some time with them on Fridays. It was not quite like working with them every day, but we have time now for that. Our goal is to improve and we did in our last game from the tournament.”
The Lady Patriots have relied on the scoring of 6-1 post player Moseley, who is a four-year starter. She has scored 59 points in her first three games (19.3 points a game) and has played a key role in rebounding as well. Senior Emma Riggs and junior guard Lexie Inge have been the second leading scorers on the team. Inge had her best game in her first year as a starter in her last outing, scoring 11 points.
SWCS’ defense has played well as times and has allowed 49 points to opponents in each of its three games. It was just the offense that couldn’t get untracked in the first two games (a 49-30 loss, then 49-35 loss).
“We have played some tough games to open the season and all three have been against larger class schools,” Fellenstein said. “Against Carnegie, we missed three or four point blank shots that could have changed the game or gotten us a whole lot closer. Then we turned the ball over 27 times and you can’t do that.
“We played better against Rush Springs, we cut our turnovers down (15), but we didn’t get any help scoring wise,” he said. “We come back and play a pretty tough OCA team in our home opener and we are the No. 8 seed in the Hammon Tournament, which means we get to play Lomega in the first round. They are always very good, I don’t know how many times state champion they are. But all we can do is go play and work on getting better.”
