Laurence Manning girls off to strong start under Ard's guidance

Manning – Although she hasn’t been a varsity girls basketball head coach since the 2005-06

season, new Laurence Manning Academy head coach Lisa Ard has the Lady ‘Cats off to a fast start.

Laurence Manning came into the new year with victories in 10 of its first 14 games. Ard believes

there are better things to come.

“We are still learning each other and my system,” said Ard, who had a very successful 9-year run

as the head coach at Crestwood High School. “I was hired late summer for the job so we didn’t get any

time to work. We have a lot of potential.”

Ard inherited a team that returned two starters from last year’s 11-13 squad that lost in the first

round of the SCISA AAAA state tournament. The two returning starters are junior Ashley Rae Hodge

and junior Lyza Prickelmyer.

Hodge was leading the team in scoring with an average of 11.0 points per game. She was also

averaging 4.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists. Prickelmyer was averaging 10.0 points and was leading the team

in assists at 4.0 and steals at 5.0 while sharing the lead in rebounding at 5.0.

The other starters are senior Olivia Danback, senior Laini Kosinski and senior Carol Ann

Briggs. Danback was averaging 3.7 points and 4.0 rebounds, Koskinski was averaging 5.0 rebounds and

3.0 assists while scoring at a 2.8 clip, and Briggs was averaging 6.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and

2.0 steals.

Ard has used her bench liberally.

“We have 12 players and our scoring has been balanced,” Ard said. “We have multiple players

scoring every game.”

The other members of the roster are senior Jessica Grifith, senior Anna Lewis Burke, junior

Lily Wellborn, junior Maggie Welch, junior Ella Grace Healon, junior Marlee Black, junior Jernee

Ford and sophomore Sarah Margaret Ferriell.

The Lady ‘Cats will be part of an expanded Region 3-AAAA. Along with fellow region

holdovers Trinity Collegiate and Wilson Hall, Hilton Head Christian Academy and John Paul II will

be part of the region after jumping up to AAAA from AAA because of reclassification. Hilton Head

Christian won its sixth consecutive state title last year, beating John Paul II for the AAA crown.

Laurence Manning will begin region play on January 10 on the road against Wilson Hall.

“Turnovers are still killing us, but we are working hard to improve and get ready for region play,”

Ard said.

LMA BOYS START 6-7 UNDER ANDERSON

The Laurence Manning boys basketball team is under new guidance as well in Patrick

Anderson. However, he isn’t an unfamiliar face as Anderson served as an assistant coach to former head

coach Will Epps for the past nine seasons.

The Swampcats got off to a 6-7 start. Anderson didn’t necessarily have an issue with the record.

“We’ve played a little bit better than I expected from the point of us having just three returning

players. We’ve had some games where we had some really good play, and we’ve had some games where

we didn’t play so well, but the effort is there. What’s led to that is they work hard and play hard for each

other.”

None of those returning players – junior Zy Dennis, sophomore Cade Mooneyham and

freshman Scoop Dennis – were starters last season. The Dennis brothers are starting this year along with

senior Brenston Rembert, junior Charlie Duvall and sophomore Ben Sanders.

Scoop Dennis was leading in scoring with a 14.8 per-game average and in rebounding at 6.2 . He

was also averaging 3.3 steals and 2.3 assists. Zy Dennis is the point guard and was averaging a team high

3.9 assists to go with 5.5 points, 1.4 steals and 3.5 rebounds

Duvall was averaging 9.5 points, 1.1 assists, Rembert was averaging 8.6 points, 1.7 steals and 1.8

assists, and Sanders was averaging 4.5 points and 2.7 rebounds.

Mooneyham is coming off the bench along with sophomore Drake Price and junior Camdyn

Strickler. The rest of the roster includes sophomore Tristen White, junior Whitley Boykin, junior

Walker Cribb, junior Shawn Thomas Moore and sophomore Eli Gamble.

Anderson said he is stressing to his players the importance of playing good defense, even though

Laurence Manning isn’t doing anything too fancy.

“Defensively, we really don’t do too much,” he said. “We’re just trying to play good, solid man-

to-man defense and make it tough on the opposing team. We want to really contest shots and limit

second-chance points.

“We’re at our best when we’re playing defense like we know how. When our focus is on the

defensive end, that’s when we’re at our best. We’ve held several teams way under their scoring averages.

When the focus is on that, that’s when we’ve been successful.”

FIVE SWAMPCATS PICKED AS AAAA FOOTBALL ALL-STATE

The Laurence Manning football team had five players selected to the SCISA AAAA All-State

football team. They were senior H back Drew Ferriell, wide receiver/defensive back Zy Dennis, senior

wide receiver/defensive back BJ Balls, offensive lineman/defensive lineman White and wide

receiver/defensive back Scoop Dennis.

Balls, the Dennis brothers and Ferriell made up a strong receiving corps. Scoop Dennis had 37

catches for 418 yards and six touchdowns, Balls had 32 catches for 576 yards and six touchdowns, Zy

Dennis had 30 catches for 277 yards and five touchdowns, and Ferriell had 15 catches for 132 yards and

three touchdowns.

Defensively, Zy Dennis had 40 tackles, four interceptions and two fumble recoveries, Scoop

Dennis had 32 tackles and Balls had 33 tackles. Balls also had 250 yards in returns.

White and Ferriell were key contributors as blockers on offense. On defense, White had 33

tackles and eight tackles for loss.

The Swampcats finished with a 3-8 record.