Basketball: Lady Dragons Look to Survive Season Without Top Two Players

The Glenelg Country Lady Dragons started Wednesday's game against Chapelgate without their two most experienced players, senior guard Sam Weinstein and sophomore guard Hannah Harbold.

Both players were starters on last year's team and were expected to be huge contributors this season.

Harbold is only expected to miss a few games as she recovers from Mononucleosis, yet Weinstein is out for the entire season after tearing a ligament early in the IAAM B conference field hockey championship last month. 

The losses of these two players will be tough to overcome for an inexperienced Glenelg Country team looking for both an identity and a leader on the court.

The Lady Dragons will look for senior guard Alexa Olney to pick up a lot of the slack as the team's only returning starter from last season – at least until Harbold returns to the lineup.

Meanwhile, Chapelgate was able to take advantage of the young Lady Dragons on Wednesday as the Yellowjackets coasted to victory, 45-22.

"We are just really inexperienced as a basketball team as a whole," said coach Dominique D'Amico, who is in her first season with the team. "They try hard and they work hard, but we just have to put all the basketball concepts together and that will come over time."

The Yellowjackets exploded out of the gates, going on a 17-0 run to start the game. The Dragons found themselves on their heals defensively. Chapelgate was moving the ball well and finding open shots and Glenelg Country was having problems adjusting.

"I think the girls were a little bit too laxed in a sense. They picked it up, but it was kind of too late," said D'Amico. "It takes us time to get adjusted and to make adjustments and we just weren't really hungry off the gate."

The Dragons would eventually settle down defensively after the first quarter, but the damage was already done. Chapelgate had outscored Glenelg Country 18-2 and amassed a seemingly insurmountable lead.

"They have some great shooters for Chapelgate," said D'Amico. "And we weren't closing out fast enough on their shooters and we weren't recognizing where their shooters were all the time. We were having trouble adjusting in the zone to get out to their shooters and I think that was out main problem."

Though, after giving up a whopping 18 points in the first quarter, the Dragons managed to hold the Yellowjackets to seven points in the second quarter, 12 in the third, and eight in the fourth.

"They (the Dragons) all tried really hard," said D'Amico. "But again, I have no true basketball players. Not one really played much last year. So it's just putting everything together and it is going to take a little while, but again they do work hard and they have a lot of energy. But we just have to become better fundamentally."

One area the Dragons need to improve on is their shooting. Glenelg Country was just 5-54 (1-5 3pts.) from the field and 11-22 from the foul line.

It is hard to win games when you can't score offensively.

"We just don't have outside shooters right now," said D'Amico. "We need some time to warm up, that's all. It is only our second game of the season."

And Coach D'Amico is not panicking. She believes she has a lot of raw talent on her team and that with a little time, the Dragons will begin to play better basketball.

But, in her first year with the program, the coach is having some trouble getting her players to buy into her way of doing things.

"I am having trouble in getting them to trust what I am teaching them," said D'Amico. "I think they might be used to a more freestyle kind of play and I am trying really hard to put more structure on the program and it is going to take them some time to get adjusted to that, because it is just not something they are used to."

Glenelg Country just has to settle down and buy into coach D'Amico's system. They have a good foundation to work from with a lot of young talent.

Freshman guard Mallory Pappas led the Lady Dragons in scoring Wednesday with seven points (1-2 3pts.) and added two steals while fellow youngster Ogechi Nwodim, a sophomore forward who played last season with Arlington Baptist, contributed with five points and four big blocks.

Although the Lady Dragons fall to 0-2 on the young season with the loss, they still have a lot to look forward to this year.

Glenelg Country has a ton of potential and with a little time and the return of one key player, the Lady Dragons could develop into a very good basketball team.

"It is going to take some time to work on the chemistry," said D'Amico. "But we are going to get there. And I only see the second half of the season getting a lot better."