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The Ladycats battled the Thomasville Bulldogs in a back-and-forth victory Thursday. The 50-37 win marked the start of the 2023-2024 season. 

Sophomore point guard DaNydia Campbell led Bainbridge with 13 points — scoring 10 in the 4th quarter. Juniors Kyra Green and Ahleah Jones were right behind Campbell with 11 and 9 points on the night. 

Ladycats head coach Daniel Evans said that spreading out the scoring is essential to the team’s success.

“If we have three girls in the double digits and the rest of the team scoring, we’ll be just fine,” Evans said.

The game started close. Bainbridge and Thomasville traded leads through most of the first half. At the end of the second quarter, the Ladycats started to pull away. The Ladycats scored six points in the first quarter, then more than doubled their scoring in the second quarter with 15 points.

A portion of the scoring effort came from opportunities created by turnovers. Defense is the team’s identity this year. Evans said that “defense is our offense,” explaining how forcing the opponent to make mistakes makes scoring easier for the Ladycats.

“About 75 percent of our practices is defense,” Evans said

The Ladycats continued their increased scoring through the second half, netting 14 and 15 points in the following quarters. As they scored, they denied, and their defensive effort kept the Bulldogs to less than 10 points a quarter.

The Ladycats look ahead to the second game of the season, where they welcome Lowndes High School to Bainbridge. Tip-off is at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18.