CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Lady Hurricanes almost nicknamed themselves the Losing Hurricanes last year.
That's not the case during the 2015-16 season for East Hamilton. Under first-year coach Tony Williams, the Lady Hurricanes are riding a 10-game winning streak after defeating Cleveland 57-31 on Tuesday evening at Cleveland Middle School.
"I used to hate game days because they were harder than basketball should be," said senior Kyndall Caudle, who has signed to play next season at Lincoln Memorial University. "Everything flows much smoother this year, and we have a chance in our tournaments."
The Lady Hurricanes left the Lady Raiders without much of a chance. A swarming pressure defense late in the first quarter turned a tied game into a double-digit lead for East Hamilton, which never let the lead get back to single figures after the second quarter started.
"We gave up six points in 30 seconds, and we were playing on our heels from then on," said Cleveland coach Mindy Kiser, whose team is 1-14 after graduating seven seniors from the previous squad. "I'm starting three players who didn't have a varsity jersey last year, so sometimes we're not all on the same page. When we are, like tonight at times, we can play pretty well."
Madison Hayes, an eighth-grader, led all players with 16 points for the Lady Hurricanes. De'Zah Lacey added 10 points while the Lady Raiders had seven players score a field goal.
"I told them before the game that I didn't want to keep having to coach focus and effort," Williams said. "I didn't want to call time out to talk about hustle and playing hard. I want to keep timeouts for strategic purposes."
The general strategy of pressuring the Lady Raiders worked throughout the game. East Hamilton forced 25 turnovers in the 32-minute game. Cleveland scored on back-to-back possessions just five times in the game.
"We knew what we were doing, what we were supposed to be doing, and we were getting hyped," Hayes said. "I remember last year's team kind of quitting when they were down."
There is no reason to be down this year. Not with 10 straight wins, a 4-1 start to play in District 5-AAA and a roster full of underclassmen who contribute.
"They had a couple years of growing pains," Williams said. "It was kind of a down program without a lot of success. But there is a core of talent that we want to teach, and I think we've made them believe."
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him on Twitter at UchiyamaCTFP.