On Tuesday night, November 28, 2018, the Buford Lady Wolves basketball team hosted Morgan County in the gym at Buford High School. While the Lady Wolves took home the win against Morgan County with a 62-36 final score, Buford Head Coach, Gene Durden knew his team was capable of more.
Morgan County held Buford to just a 13-point lead going into the 2nd half of the game. While Morgan County put the pressure on Buford, not leaving Buford without coverage, Buford failed to execute plays. Morgan County missed basket after basket both at the basket and at 3 point range.
After half-time, the Lady Wolves seemed to have stepped up their game in aggressiveness. They saw opportunities to take possession of the ball from Morgan County and took them. Morgan County kept the pressure on Buford keeping them with little space to break away which led Buford to rely on teamwork. Buford did a better job of covering Morgan County and making them miss scoring opportunities. Defensively, the Lady Wolves held Morgan County to just 15 points in the second half of the game.
“I thought we were very inconsistent. I thought sometimes we played really hard and then, we didn’t finish plays. I felt like we did a lot of good things but we just didn’t finish plays,” Coach Durden said of his team’s effort against Morgan County.
With Buford loosing many of last year’s key players like Tory Ozment after they graduated, the coaching staff knew that new girls would have to step up to lead the team. Two seasoned veterans, Preston Reid, a senior, and Tate Walters, a junior, have stepped up to make the plays and lead the team. In addition to Reid and Walters, Coach Durden added, “Katelyn Klein has been playing really really consistent for us.”
Next up for the Lady Wolves is Parkview on Saturday, December 1st at the Wesleyan School in Peachtree Corners at 5 p.m.
