Lady Cougars Fall to Gatewood

Piedmont Academy’s varsity girls basketball team fell to Gatewood on the road last Friday in what turned out to be a low-scoring contest.

The Lady Cougars (2-4 overall) dropped a 30-22 contest to the Lady Gators despite 10 points from Sydney Stroud. Haley Ann Frank finished with five points for Piedmont while Maddie Waddleton scored three.

“It’s always fun to play Gatewood,” said coach Michael Wilson. “We love the rivalry and their fans passion. They are a well-coached team with a great tradition. It is always a good measuring stick for us to see where we are in our building process. It’s better to beat them but we can take many positives away from it.”

Despite the loss the Lady Cougar coach said he liked the way his team battled.

“We played hard,” Wilson said. “I thought we did everything we needed to do in order to win. We just didn’t make any attempts. That has really been our Achilles Heel so far. We had less turnovers, more rebounds, more steals and even took more shots than Gatewood. As simple as it sounds, we just have to make more.”

The Piedmont girls were off Tuesday of this week as Furtah Prep does not have a varsity girls team.

The Lady Cougars will host Young Americans Christian Thursday at 6 p.m. followed by a home game Friday against LaGrange Academy, also at 6 p.m.

“We are going to really focus on shooting in practice and take a look at the little things like he girls foot work and shoulders,” Wilson said. “We are losing with correctable mistakes and that’s what we as a team are going to do. When we did make shots and could get in our full court defense we were able to take it to them. I told the girls afterwards that if we keep our effort and hustle and the level it was we will be where we want to be in February.”

The Lady Cougars were just 14 percent from the floor and that is something that must improve, their coach said.

“Moving forward, we have a very busy month thanks to some schedule changes and we have got to focus on our mental and physical conditioning and health,” Wilson said. “We need to make sure we have a good diet, practice smarty, get enough rest so our brains stay fresh and alert and keep hydrated. The next three weeks or so will present a great time to build momentum for us heading to region and beyond.”

Piedmont also travels to Briarwood on Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. contest before hosting St. George’s at 6 p.m.