The Bethel-Tate Lady Tigers have begun the year 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the SBC.

The Bethel-Tate Lady Tigers have begun the year 6-0 overall and 5-0 in the SBC.
By Chris Chaney
Sports Editor

The Bethel-Tate Lady Tigers have made a concerted effort in 2015-16 to be a defense-first team, evolving from the run-and-gun squad that tried to outscore opponents night in and night out last year.

That shift in game plan has proven effective as the Lady Tigers are off to a 6-0 start overall and a perfect 5-0 mark in the Southern Buckeye Conference National Division through the first three weeks of the season.

“We’re giving up about 36 points per game (over the first six games), which has been fantastic,” head coach Dave Fallis said. “That’s about 10 points different over last year. We know our offense isn’t going to be crisp every game, so we’ve relied on our defense and we’ve been able to shut teams down early in games.”

The Lady Tigers have only trailed for a significant portion of game time once this season: a 10-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter of a Dec. 14 victory over Williamsburg.

“We were down 14 (points) at one point and we had to rely on our defense (to get us back in the game),” Fallis said. “We played our best defensive quarter of the year — we only gave up four points in the fourth quarter and ended up winning by three points.

“It was a test of character for our kids and they kept their composure. They knew if we relied on our defense, eventually shots would fall and that’s what happened.”

Led by returning three-time SBC All-Star Julia Jenike, the Lady Tigers boast a guard-centric lineup that allows Bethel-Tate to match up advantageously with their SBC opponents. Down low, senior Alyssa Demaris holds down the paint as the returning leading rebounder from a team that finished 2014-15 with a 19-6 record.

Having taken care of business in the first half of the SBC schedule, the Lady Tigers now have destiny in their control as they attempt to win their first league title since 1990.

“We continually had to check scores after our games last year to see if Felicity beat Georgetown or if Georgetown beat Williamsburg to see if we were back in the thick of things (in the league),” Fallis said. “(This year) we’ve been very focused on playing one game at a time, one quarter at a time, one possession at a time and that’s been working for us.

“We decided that we’re just going to be worried about us. We’re going to do everything we can do and so far it’s worked out. We’re controlling our own destiny, but we understand in our league there are four teams who could beat each other on any given night.”

Through this week, Bethel-Tate has proven to be the team that has beaten everyone else. And with the first leg of the conference schedule behind them, Fallis said the team is going into the holiday stretch looking to solidify a deeper bench.

“(Monday) started a string of five games in 10 days, so we’re trying to make sure we get our rest,” Fallis said. “We’re going one game at a time and in the non-league games that we have coming up now, we’re going to try to develop a solid No. 7 and solid No. 8 player so that when we come to the second round of league play, we know who our eight or nine girls are who will be playing in the game.”

Bethel-Tate continues their torrid race to the New Year with three road games in a row against Amelia, Middletown Madison and Goshen. Their final game of 2015 is slated for Dec. 23 against Gamble Montessori.

Earning some well-deserved time off over the Christmas and New Year’s break, the Lady Tigers kick off the second half of their season on Jan. 4 vs. Fayetteville-Perry.