Just three games into the conference season, only two teams remain undefeated in 5A-South action, but only until the Hot Springs Lady Trojans play host to the Lake Hamilton Lady Wolves tonight at Trojan Fieldhouse.
Lake Hamilton (10-4, 3-0) opened the season with wins over then-undefeated Sheridan (14-1, 2-1) and Lakeside (13-3, 0-3) before downing J.A. Fair (1-12, 0-3) Friday night at Wolf Arena. Hot Springs (7-6, 3-0) opened its conference campaign with a 51-35 rout of Fair before downing Texarkana (8-9, 0-3) and El Dorado (11-4, 2-1) on the road.
With both teams now members of the 5A-South for at least the next two seasons under the Arkansas Activities Association's current classification cycle, tonight's matchup means more than it has meant for several years.
Lake Hamilton head coach Blake Condley simply said the competition will "be a tough matchup."
"We're going to have to play well," he said. "The more information you get, the more you're seeing -- they go on the road to what I feel like is a pretty good El Dorado team, and they were able to beat them (Friday) night. We're going to have our hands full.
"You add in the in-town rivalry and going to their place -- which it doesn't matter who you are coming in there -- it's a tough place to play. I think it's going to be tough. We'll have to absolutely be ready to beat them. I don't think they'll give it to us and let us have it. We're going to have to go play better than what they do and be able to beat them.
Hot Springs head coach Josh Smith agreed.
"Any time you're playing Lake Hamilton, it's already a different night," he said. "It doesn't matter how good or how bad you may be, each year it's going to be a battle. That's what we expect.
"I feel like they've found their groove here lately. They're playing really well; they're scoring a lot of points. They're shooting the ball well, doing a lot of good things. It looks like they have just as good a chance as anybody in the conference to win it."
Hot Springs, traditionally strong at home in the compact Trojan Fieldhouse, is bolstered with two early road wins.
"We're out here, just like them, taking it one game at a time for ourselves," Smith said. "We've done some good things. We've found a way to win two on the road out of these first three.
"It's big anytime you can get some games on the road to start the year in conference, and this one's at home. It's one of those games where you want to protect the house. If you can protect your house, you've got a good chance to get to the number of wins you need to get into the state tournament. Each game matters now, and we're preaching that every game matters where in the past it hasn't. It's a different mentality you have to take going toward it. It makes every game that much bigger."
With nine seniors graduating from last year's squad, three of which were starters, the Lady Wolves have had to rebuild. Condley said he is unsure how some of his players will react to the atmosphere.
"I think we've got some girls that they won't look at it as nervousness," he said. "They'll look at it as excitement and enjoyment, and these are some of the reasons we like to play basketball is because you get a big game with some hype and going to be a big crowd and going to be a lot of fun."
Smith noted the environment will be new to his team as well, losing four starters from last year's Class 5A state champion team, including Nya Moody, who moved to Lake Hamilton for her senior season.
"They're excited to play every night, but when you've got Lake Hamilton coming to the house, you know that it's going to be a packed gym," he said. "Hamilton's going to bring their fans, and it's going to be almost shutting the doors down and not letting anybody else in type environment. That's for the kids. They want to have something like that. They want to play in something like that.
"We haven't had a game that it's been that packed this year. We haven't had a ton of home games either. I'm ready for them to see what it'll be like to be out there and see what we're made of. That's what it's about, going to play good teams. We've done that all year, and we've got another challenge in front of us, and we look forward to it. We're ready for it to get here."
Moody's experience with Hot Springs adds another element to the game.
Both coaches admitted that with Moody playing against the team she helped lead a year ago, there could be a different aspect to the game.
"We had somebody leave us, and her group is going to want to play hard for her because she's over there, but I don't see it being anything more than what it is," Smith said.
"I think it'll be different for her because it's coaches that have coached her and girls that she's played with," Condley said. "At the same time, you've got girls playing against her that have played with her. I don't know if it will be a little weird or something like that ... just different.
"It's going to be different than most situations that you would set up. Now, I don't expect it to have any kind of effect, especially once the ball gets tossed up. I'd like to think it'll be just be playing basketball and trying to help our respective teams win."
Smith said a key to the game will be rebounding. The Lady Trojans won the rebound battle at Texarkana as 6-0 senior Bre Collins pulled down 11.
"You've got to do those things because if you're not shooting it well, if you can sneak in a couple of those offensive boards the other team is missing, you're limiting them to that one shot," Smith said. "That's huge. It seems like any time somebody gets that offensive rebound, it always comes back to hurt you."
Condley said those extra possessions can be crucial, especially in a rivalry matchup.
"I think it was two games ago that Jenny Peake came up with two or three big offensive rebounds for us to get buckets," Condley said. "Then one game, Morgan (Fincham) steps up, and she has like five offensive rebounds in the first quarter of a game.
"It's things like that that give you extra possessions. We need those possessions; we want those possessions, and at the same time, you can't let somebody else have them. Hot Springs, they'll be coming."
Smith said Hot Springs will have to be wary of a dynamic offense for Lake Hamilton.
"When they get it going, they can score points," Smith said. "They can do it from multiple people between Aspen (Thornton), Jenny, Nya, Tia (Mullenix) -- she had 18 the other night."
Smith said both teams can score by committee. He said the Lady Trojans have to be defensive-minded and play at their pace.
"Coach Smith will be getting those girls prepared to try to take some things away from us," Condley said. "That's the chess match that gets fun when you're in the middle of the season, and you get ready to go play these games.
"I think that usually determines the outcome of the games, which teams can adjust to what's being thrown at them. Mike Tyson said, 'Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.' How can you respond to that and come back from it?"
Anticipated tip-off for the game will be about 6 p.m. following a junior varsity boys game at 5 p.m.
Sports on 01/15/2019