Back at the Brickhouse for playoffs
Cedar Creek opens its playoff run with a home matchup against Slaughter Community Charter. Photo by Darrell James
The Cedar Creek Lady Cougars (16-12) enter the playoffs without the burden of feeling their season could be one-and-done.
While the postseason format is understood and motivates Creek, the No. 9 seed in the Division IV Select field, head coach Katie Hall wants her group focused on playing for the love of the game and executing for each other – not the do-or-die format the playoffs are built on.
Yes, winning tonight against No. 24 seed Slaughter Community Charter (6-13) means Creek continues its postseason journey and has a second-round matchup against No. 8 seed St. Martin’s Episcopal.
And yet, Hall has said all season she wants her team to play free from fear of failure and instead perform as if there’s no scoreboard. All that matters is did you play at your best, and did you help your teammates along the way?
She won’t let the postseason change her message to her team now.
“I love the culture we’re building here, and I think it sets us up well for the future and what that looks like. I think the foundation we’ve laid is going to catapult us to do well going forward,” Hall said. “It’s about energy, effort, teamwork, cheering each other on. It’s not about Xs and Os. I think they have freedom more than where we started, and they trust me and I trust them. I just want them to not take this for granted and go out and play for the love of the game and not get caught up in the hoopla of you lose, you go home.”
When it comes to oncourt details, Hall has worked with the Lady Cougars on stronger defensive positioning and communication, areas that Hall saw as reasons why they lost 37-28 to Ouachita Christian in the District 2-1A title game on Saturday.
And while Hall said Creek can’t take any opponent lightly, Slaughter doesn’t exactly show itself like a team with much to prepare for on paper. Slaughter, who comes in on a threegame losing skid, has not reached 60 points in a game over the last three seasons, including a 33.8 ppg average this regular season. Slaughter has one road win all season and only managed 16 points in its playoff loss to St. Edmund last year.
“We’ve really been focusing on us and trying to improve on things and tune up a little bit and make some tweaks,” Hall said. “We just need to understand who we’re guarding defensively. Offensively, we kind of got away from pushing pace in transition, and we’ve been fine tuning some things when it comes to us.”
Cedar Creek hosts Slaughter Charter tonight in a 6 p.m. tipoff at the Brickhouse.
