The Madison Lady Rams were all business on Saturday night in Pete Henry Gymnasium at Mansfield Senior High for the Northwest Girls Division 2 Sectional Championship game against crosstown rivals, the Lexington Lady Lex.
The Lady Rams wasted no time building a comfortable lead by using a full court run and jump defense that is Madison Head Coach Brian Carr’s specialty. His team was able to force Lexington into 32 total turnovers on the night.
Along with the suffocating defense, the Lady Rams had a career night out of senior Fantasia Hood who poured in 36 points on 11 of 18 shooting and 12 points coming from the free throw stripe.
“Once she [Hood] starts knocking down the threes, it opens up so much for us. [Senior point guard] Molea [Thompson] is able to then drive and take it to the hoop because of all of the attention then is put on defending Hood. In turn, it opens up [junior post] Mekaila Crose on the inside. We have shooters all over the floor and to get Hood going is really important to our success,” said Coach Carr.
The one player that seemed to benefit the most from all of the attention Hood was drawing was Crose. She had a monster night of 22 points and an astonishing 16 rebounds including 12 on the offensive end of the ball. Thompson also added 10 points for the Lady Rams. The Lady Rams were 22 of 39 from the charity stripe and shot 42 percent from the field on 71 total shots–almost twice as many as Lexington was able to manage.
The Lady Rams never trailed in the entire game and at one time built a lead as much as 32 points over Lady Lex. The final score was 77-50 in favor of the Northwest Girls Division 2 Sectional Champions, the Madison Lady Rams.
Lady Lex had a huge all around effort out of senior play maker Kelly Rhodes who poured in 23 points and added 14 rebounds to her stat line. Junior Michaela Wendling chipped in with 10 points. Lexington was able to shoot 42 percent from the field.
The Lady Rams will take on the winner of the Norwalk and Willard Sectional Championship game. Coach Carr is no stranger to either team as he is a former assistant at Willard High School.
“It’s either Norwalk or Willard. It does not matter to us. It would be nice if it was Willard but at this point, who ever it is we are going to just flat out play our game and see what happens,” added Carr.
