Almost everywhere the Waco Lady Panthers went during those two out-of-state tournaments, they wore Waco T-shirts.
“People would see them and say, ‘Oh, y’all are from Texas?’ They were representing Waco well,” said Lady Panthers coach Corey Ephraim.
Then the players went out and showed that Waco girls can play a little ball, too.
The Lady Panthers are a local select basketball team comprised of area players from around the Greater Waco area. This year’s squad featured two players who attend Connally, two from La Vega, two from Waco High, two from University, one from China Spring, and one from Robinson.
“Most of these girls have played together since the sixth grade,” Ephraim said. “We had only two seniors on this year’s team. The rest were all freshmen last year, but they played up, because they really wanted to play with those two senior girls.”
The seniors, La Vega’s Aiyana Ephraim and Connally’s multi-time Super Centex standout Miannah Little, provided savvy leadership to the squad, not to mention some slick shooting. Their contributions were especially needed when three of the Lady Panthers’ players went down with injuries, leaving them with a seven-player roster for a pair of national tournaments out of state.
No matter. The Lady Panthers overcame their roster depletion to win their first tournament earlier this month in New Orleans, recording a 5-1 record in the very competitive tournament.
“The girls really pulled together. They played tough, especially because we typically full-court press the whole game,” Corey Ephraim said.
Here’s the thing, though. The Lady Panthers wrapped up the New Orleans tournament on July 22. The very next day they were scheduled to play another game at another national tournament.
In Atlanta.
Yes, Atlanta, Georgia.
“It was kind of a crazy schedule, but we made it,” Ephraim said.
The Lady Panthers suffered a 62-45 loss in their first game, after traveling all day to get to Atlanta from New Orleans.
But they won their next five, including a 56-48 triumph in the championship game. So, if you’re scoring at home, that’s two championships, a 10-2 record, in two different states, with wins over teams from six different states, in the span of a week.
Oh, and a lifetime of memories, too.
“It’s hard to put into words what the trip meant,” Ephraim said. “We also tried to pack in some educational trips. We visited some historic black colleges, in Atlanta we went and visited Martin Luther King’s birthplace. We tried to pack in as much learning as we did playing ball.”
— WACOTRIB