Lady Gladiators:
On Monday night, Italy’s JV and Varsity Lady Gladiators hosted the Malakoff Lady Tigers. The upgraded 1A Lady Gladiators have started the 2009 season 3-0 but knew they would have their hands full against a talented Malakoff squad.

The Lady Tigers had their way with Italy last season but this year is different. Italy’s girls have been mentally and physically rengineered by head coach Stacy McDonald.

Italy is still very much a young team with only one senior in the starting lineup, however, the players are battle tested after making it to the playoffs last season.

Center Jimesha Reed is an imposing force in the paint and at times was dominant as a freshman in the 2008-2009 season. With the near misses turning into makes this time around, the potential for this team is limitless.

Forward Megan Richards, who showed flashes of being a deadly outside shooter a year ago as a freshman, has found her range as a sophomore.

Sophomore Kaitlyn Rossa, who was voted the districts Most Improved Player in 2008, literally gives 110% every time she steps on the court. A tremendous defender, Rossa has added a confident mid-range jump shot and is aggressive on the boards.

Freshman point guard Jameka Copeland will be filling the sneakers of last year’s lone senior, Becca DeMoss. Copeland is athletic and shows signs of being able to will her time to victories, much like DeMoss.

Freshman Alyssa Richards, sister to teammate Megan Richards, was a big part of an undefeated 8th grade squad in 2008 and will add muscle and passing skills to a Lady Gladiator unit that’s already shown improvement in those areas this season.

Sophomore Kyonne Birdsong has the ability to stick with dribblers 1-on-1, giving Coach McDonald another defensive weapon in fullcourt press situations.

Rounding out the “Swishing Seven” is Senior Jaleecia Fleming. Fleming has enetered the 2009 season with a sense of purpose, determined to lead her team back to the playoffs.

As good as all that sounds, 2A Malakoff has goals of their own and were planning to use the Italy game as tune-up for the cause. However, Italy, led by Jimesha Reed’s 4-points in the 1st quarter, was tied with Malakoff 8-8 early.

The Tigers applied full court pressure and ran off 7 straight points to take a 15-8 lead going into the 2nd period.

Malakoff put in the first 5-points of the 2nd as well to build a 20-8 lead. Determined to get in the game, Megan Richards hit 2-jumpers to inspire a Lady Gladiator flury capped off by a Reed basket inside the paint. Italy managed to keep it close, 23-16 at the break.

Kaitlyn Rossa who was a beast defensively holding Malakoff leading scorer to only 11-points while Rossa added 5-points in 3rd quarter herself. Malakoff’s full court pressure was just as stingy to the Lady Gladiators and the Tigers led 38-25 going into the final period.

Coach Stacy McDonald’s Lady Gladiators responded to the challenge and began to score. In fact, 15-points dropped in for the Lady Gladiators, 8-points from Reed.

Italy got within 6-points of the Tigers but Malakoff held on for a 49-40 win. The Lady Gladiators are now 3-1 but will be able learn from this game making them even stronger going into the December 3-5 tournament being hosted by Italy.

Lady Gladiator Stats:

JV Lady Gladiators:
The Italy JV Gladiators competed against Malakoff as well on Monday. Italy led 3-0 but a layup by the Tigers with 0:23 left in the 1st period gave Malakoff a 9-0 lead going into the 2nd.

Behind 11-8, Italy would hit two jumpers to reclaim the lead. The Tigers then put in 9 unanswered points to take a 20-14 advantage. Italy’s Chante Birdsong put in 4 straight fastbreak points to close the gap 20-18 before halftime.

Italy had a cold shooting 3rd quarter as Malakoff’s full court press defense took away Italy’s momentum from their 1st half rally. The Tigers climbed to a 25-18 lead and never looked back as Malakoff’s JV girls remain unfefeated at 5-0 while Italy’s JV girls have started 1-3.

Italy’s JV squad is playing hard but missed a lot of shots inside that will hopefully start falling for them after a few more practices.

Go Lady Gladiators!