MADISON TOWNSHIP — Brian Carr doesn’t need to see the stat sheet to tell you just how accurate Fantasia Hood is.
Madison’s veteran coach trusts his eyes.
“She’s probably the bet outside shooter I’ve coached,” Carr said of the newly-minted Richland Source Athlete of the Week. “If you watch her play, you can see what she brings right away. She’s so athletic and long. She can take the ball to the hoop or she can step back and knock down 3s.
“She really creates mismatch problems with her size. Do you want to put a slower post player on her or do you want to put a smaller guard on her?”
Not many coaches in the Ohio Cardinal Conference have an answer for the 5-foot-8 senior wing. She’s averaging 15.2 points a game and has connected on a Richland County-leading 34 3-pointers, while shooting 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
She scored 23 points in Madison’s 64-38 win over Lexington last week as the Rams completed the season sweep of Lady Lex.
The victory was Madison’s third straight after a frustrating six-game losing streak. The Rams evened their record at 8-8 on the year.
“We’ve been playing a lot better recently,” Hood said. “We’re playing well as a team.
“After we lost six in a row, our confidence was shaken. Once we finally broke the streak (in a 50-44 win at Clear Fork on Jan. 16), we started to gain our confidence back.”
It’s not like the Rams were getting blown out during their slide. There were two narrow losses to Ashland (63-58 at Ashland in late December and 57-51 in the first game in the new gym two weeks later). There also were close setbacks at Wooster (63-52) and at home against Orrville (59-55).
“When you look at what we’ve done this season, there have really only been two games we weren’t in,” Carr said. “One of them was at (undefeated) West Holmes and the other was at Mansfield Senior.
“Other than that, we have been within five or six points.”
Hood and senior point guard Molea Thompson make up one of the premier offensive back courts in north central Ohio. Thompson averages 14.2 points and an area-best 5.4 assists a game.
“With our offense, we look for Molea to create and make good decisions,” Carr said. “She can go to the basket, get the ball inside or find one of our spot-up shooters on the perimeter. In addition to Fantasia and Molea, we’ve got some girls who can shoot the ball from the perimeter. Lexi Morris and Amanda Kolmansberger can shoot the ball from the outside.”
Like Hood and Thompson, Morris and Kolmansberger are seniors. Junior Mekaila Grose averages 10.4 points and 10.4 rebounds a game.
“Our chemistry is very good,” Hood said. “We like to play together and a lot of us hang out together off the court.”
The Rams will join Lexington, Clear Fork, Ontario, Shelby and Galion at the Division II Mansfield Senior sectional. The tournament draw is Sunday.
“When you look at the teams in the field, it’s going to be wide open,” Carr said. “We feel like, with the schedule we have played, we’re not going to encounter anything in the sectional and district that we haven’t seen during the regular season.
“We just need to put everything together. We’ve played from behind in a lot of games this year, so these girls won’t panic.”
As for Hood, the senior is hoping for a lengthy tournament run for her swan song.
“I think we are capable of a good tournament run,” Hood said. “We are playing better as a team now than we were earlier in the year.”
Like every other team in Richland County, Madison hasn’t had a chance to do much playing at all recently. The brutally cold weather has forced the cancellation of school and the Rams haven’t been in the gym in four days.
“It has been crazy,” Hood said. “When you take time off like that in the middle of the season, you can really tell a difference. You have to re-adjust to the speed of the game.”
Madison won’t have much time to adjust. West Holmes, the No. 1 team in Division II in the most recent Associated Press state poll, visits later this week.
“We’ve never played well against them,” Hood said. “Hopefully, we can get it together and that will get us ready for the tournament.”
Follow Curt Conrad on Twitter @curtjconrad.
“She really creates mismatch problems with her size. Do you want to put a slower post player on her or do you want to put a smaller guard on her?” – Madison head coach Brian Carr about Fantasia Hood
