The Mineola Lady Jackets are prepped for the district campaign which began this week. Part of that preparation was hosting the Longview Lady Lobos last Friday. Longview prevailed 63-37.

It’s a game, and games are meant to be won. But the Longview game, which the Lady Lobos owned from the start, was an excellent launching pad for Mineola’s district schedule. 

There were two big lessons which the Lady Jackets will likely learn from last Friday’s loss. The first is the difference between the placement of players on the court versus the area which they can physically effect. 

The Lady Lobos pressed full court in the initial stages of the game. They were not positioned differently than any other team which presses, but they could affect a larger area per person. That ability stems from a combination of physical ability and anticipation.

The result is that the standard passing lanes which were used by Mineola to beat the press were often ripe pickings for Longview. Those turnovers on the press resulted in Longview jumping to a huge lead at the outset.

The Lady Jackets will well remember how those constricted passing lanes were affected and   will certainly be more wily when faced with such pressure in the future. 

The second instructive moment came in the third quarter when the Lady Jackets decided that they would match the Lady Lobos’ physicality. Mineola won the third quarter by a 4-point margin.  

The Lady Jackets will compete for a district title among a group of talented teams this year. It is likely that some of their success will have its origins in that mid-December game against Longview.