By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Brighton senior guard Kailey Hunt goes up for a layup over Millington defender Kiara Kemp during Friday night’s game in Brighton.
Brighton Lady Cardinals Head Coach David Wampler has a list of goals for his team. After winning 9 games last year, ending the district winless streak and not finishing last in the league, many in the community are declaring the Lady Cardinals to be back. But Wampler is saying, ‘Not so fast folk.’ He is placing benchmarks and achievements for his players to reach throughout the season like surpassing the 9-win mark. On Friday night in the Brighton Gymnasium, the Lady Cardinals took another step toward that goal beating area rival the Millington Lady Trojans 52-24 to improve to 4-2 overall. “This was a big win for us pointwise,” Wampler said. “But we missed 18 layups. For us, we’re young. I don’t think they understand like when we played Westview they played hard. Tonight, we were like, ‘Oh let’s just go out there.’ Never mind that, you have to go out there and play to your abilities. That’s the mental part that we’re going to have to develop.” The Lady Cardinals were ahead 27-9 at halftime. Brighton added 10 points in the third quarter with a couple of layups from T. Brown and a Kailee Hunt jumper. The Lady Cardinals were ahead 37-14 entering the fourth quarter. Lady Cardinals like Onyx-Magno Hester and Sylvia “Bug” Jones made layup to maintain the sizable advantage. Brighton outscored the Lady Trojans 15-10 to win by 28 points. Wampler said he is still learning about his team as it works toward goals. Meanwhile he wants his players to develop a consistent hunger.
“They’re not scared of anybody,” he concluded. “If they don’t think a team is very good, then they’re not focused.”
