Published: January 05, 2009 11:49 pm      

Hornets eager to take on Bears

Huntsville returns for first home game in nearly three weeks

Everything went the Hornets’ way on Friday as they routed Waller 64-45 in the District 18-4A opener.

Huntsville head coach Larry Carlson hopes to see more of the same tonight as the Hornets return to the Paul Bohan Hornet Gym in their district home opener against Montgomery.

“They lost their big kid (Chase Kammerer) to St. Pius this year,” Carlson said. “That hurts them tremendously. But Don Johnson does a good job of coaching his team. Despite losing some key players that bring some firepower, I’m expecting them to test us.

“They’ll probably come out in the zone to try to limit what we can do, but we can easily counter it with our speed and with our guards hitting their shots.”

If faced with a zone defense, Carlson said he doesn’t necessarily need his guards to come out in a groove right away.

“It hasn’t really been important all season,” Carlson said. “Even if Justin (Ennis) and Marvin (Dunbar) start a little off, we have Jeremy LaDay and Marcus Irving that can come in. But Justin and Marvin can also use their speed and get the ball to Kirby (Ennis), so they’re still getting things done out there.”

The Hornets have been working on doing the little things better and more efficiently.

“Right now, our current starters are having good practices,” Carlson said. “Defensively, we’re where we want to be. We’re working on rotation and cutting off the first pass. Offensively, we’ve been working on feeding the ball to Kirby more.

“But as we continue to get better, I also feel we have gotten a better attitude along the way. The loss to Oak Ridge (in the Conroe tournament on Dec. 30) did a lot for us. We’re much more intense on defense now. We’re rebounding better and have better communication. Against Oak Ridge, we played real lackadaisically.”

It will be the first home game for Huntsville since Dec. 20 when it defeated Tomball 60-48.

“We’re hoping to have a good crowd,” Carlson said. “I know the kids have fun when there’s a lot of people in the stands. I’d like to see a lot of support.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.