HANCEVILLE, Ala.- The No. 4 West Point Lady Warriors, riding a 27-game heater, met the no. 7 Priceville Lady Bulldogs at Tom Drake Coliseum on Thursday afternoon for a spot in the 5A Elite Eight. At the half, West Point led by nine, which they quickly stretched with a strong third quarter, running away with a 65-32 Sweet Sixteen victory.
Warriors 5-11 center Laklin Shadix met in the middle with Priceville’s Abby Langlois, who has a two inch advantage in size. Shadix stepped up, playing superb defense to hold Langlois to just 6-14 from the field and recording three steals and blocks each. The Lady Bulldogs’ offense is built around Langlois’ interior presence, with a slow-burning offense that wears down coverage then letting the center get to work.
“Our (philosophy) is to play as fast as we can possibly play. It came down to ‘who’s going to impose their will first?’ I think we did that, starting with the opening tip. We got that lead and they never could really get a lead to get in their ‘stall’ situations. Our press wasn’t really effective, but it made them play fast- our speed, and it made them take shots they probably wouldn’t normally take. That kind of negates their size, too, playing like that,” West Point head coach John Welborn said.
The Lady Warriors’ fast-paced offense especially works due to the court vision and instincts of the Faulkner twins, guards Jaelyn and Camryn. The two both excel on defense, nabbing steals then shining on fast breaks, with each sister seeming to know where the other will be before they’re there. Crafty backdoor cuts, swing passes to the outside and down court lobs from one to the other fueled a combined 35 point, 13 rebounds, eight assists and four steals from the twins.
“We’ve been playing with each other…well, forever, so I do feel like I know where she is all the time. It feels amazing to get this far with her,” Jaelyn said, with Camryn adding “I dont think it would feel the same without her.”
After holding Priceville to just 29% shooting from the field and 11.8% from three, the Lady Warriors move on to play the no. 2 Guntersville Lady Wildcats on Monday at 4 p.m. at WSCC. Guntersville is coming off a 60-36 slashing of no. 1 Scottsboro, and feature one of the top 2030 guards in the state in 5-7 Kenna’d Buie.
“We’re gonna go out, we’re gonna play the same basketball we have all year long. We’re gonna play fast, we’re gonna be tenacious, we’re gonna hustle, we’re gonna rebound and we’re gonna do everything that we can do, just like we have all year long, we’ve won 28 in a row now. We’re not going to change anything, we might tweak a few things, but we’re going to play our game and, well, we’re going to try and outscore them,” Welborn said on their Elite Eight matchup.
