Lady ‘Dawgs season kicked off Tuesday at Pauls Valley

The Lexington Bulldogs girls’ basketball team is primed and ready for the 2019-20 season to begin, according to second-year Lexington head coach Derek Clark.

“We have a lot of talent coming back and a lot of scoring back from last year,” Clark said. “We should be senior-heavy in the starting lineup. As far as our schedule goes, we’ll be getting into a new conference and it’s going to be a lot harder. So, we’ll definitely have to show up to play at our best every night.”

The Lady ‘Dawgs are moving from the Big Eight Conference to another conference that promises to provide a tougher slate of teams.

“Our schedule is going to be twice as hard as it was last year,” Clark said. “We do have a lot of talent coming back and we expect to compete well and have a great year.”

Last year, Lexington’s girls team went 13-12 in Clark’s first year as a head coach (he is starting his third year overall this season with the ‘Dawgs.) Due to unfortunate illness to several starters, Lex was unable to capitalize on the promise that it saw at the first of last season.

“I thought going 13-12 last year with all the illness going around and everything that happened was a good year for us,” Clark said. “We persevered through it all but it was tough. It was my first year as head coach and I think 13-12 was a good start.”

Lexington started last year 5-1. The Lady ‘Dawgs won a big game against Holdenville, 64-28, last February to advance to Regional play.

But, they dropped a 52-44 decision to No. 17 Comanche and then Dickson ended their season in a 58-56 heartbreaker.

“We lost a close one to Dickson to end the season,” Clark said. “Dickson is who we open up this season with and I’m pretty sure they’re bringing everybody back. But, we bring a lot of people back from last season, too, so it should be a pretty good first game. “

Lexington will play host to the Dickson Lady Comets (12-15 last year) at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 22. The Lady ‘Dawgs bring back a lot players from last year – mainly seniors Emilee Jenks, Amanda Graddy, Anna Sample, Zayla Hyde and Lauren Beason.

“Lauren Beason and Amanda Graddy are back and they’ll be important for us in terms of scoring,” Clark said. “Amanda is pretty good at shooting the 3-ball. Rylee Beason is just a freshman but she can come in for us and start helping us pretty quickly. Jaci Idlett is coming back and she’ll be big for us in the middle.

“Emilee Jenks is a senior who has played a few minutes in our program and her experience will help us. If we can keep everybody healthy, we should be okay. We’ve always had one key piece missing since I’ve been here for three years. It’s been a different kid each year but they’ve always been a key part of our team. This year, hopefully we’ll be healthy and we can keep things that way for a great year.”

Clark isn’t one to make grandiose predictions about his team. He just wants his girls to play to the best of their abilities, show hustle, and let the chips fall where they may.

“I think we can go as far as hard as we want to work,” Clark said. “We have a lot of talent coming back. We just need to see if we can stay healthy and see if we can do the little things to win. We will try our best to make the stride to the next level. We’re all excited about this season and the prospects of having a great year.”