Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

With district play looming next week, the Memorial girls basketball student-athletes feel they are heading in the right direction.

The team dropped its season opener to Humble in a 43-39 loss. But, the Titans were able to avenge the defeat when the two teams met in a tournament this past weekend. Memorial defeated Humble 44-43.

Entering Tuesday, Memorial stood at 4-11 on the season.

Senior point guard Erial Fontenot said she is pleased with the team but added there is much work to be done.

“We can do a lot more,” she said. “Work needs to be done. I hope we can get to the playoffs and be district champs.”

The point guard watches YouTube videos of high school guard highlights to learn new techniques. She worked on ball control and ball handling the most in the offseason.

Head Coach Mark Henry said the team’s second contest against Humble was probably the best his squad played all year.

“We still have a lot of room for growth,” he said. “We are getting better game by game. I can see steady progress. As long as we can stay on that incline, I feel good about our chances in district.”

Henry said minimizing self-made errors is the biggest key to his team’s success.

“We had a lot of turnovers and missed free throws,” he said. “I told them we killed ourselves. If we do the right things, we would be leading most of our games. They were able to see that. We reduced the turnovers. We had 30-something in the first game and had less than 10 in the second game.”

The coach said his team is led by a committee girls taking turns stepping up.

“I have two seniors that are here,” he said. “The rest are juniors and sophomores. The seniors have been stepping up.”

Henry said Fontenot is the one who initiates the offense.

“They have been with the program for four years,” he said. “They know my mentality and what I expect. She is able to relay it to the younger girls.”

Junior center Amonti Edwards is also one of the leaders. The post player is ready for the challenge of a tough district.

“We want to come in first in the district,” she said. “When you go against tough competition, you have to play tough. If you go against easy competition, there is no point. You are not going to improve. You want the competition. We live for the challenge.”

Memorial starts district play Dec. 14 in Beaumont taking on the Timeberwolves. Tipoffs for Memorial girls games will be a bit earlier this year due to a lack of a freshman team. Henry said varsity games will tipoff between 5-6 p.m.