Battle for the Cure: Lady Phoenix Elite

Mindy McCarthy October 11, 2021 @ 04:21 PM

The Battle for the Cure included many young athletes competing against one another for a single cause: to raise money for breast cancer research. The Lady Phoenix Elite 2022 Rudd squad featured a wide range of ages competing against the toughest competition at the event. Here are some of the standouts from the weekend. [player_tooltip player_id="337615" first="Hawa" last="Balde"] (pictured above, 2022) is a big presence inside using power dribbles to move her opponents and score her points. She does well with her back to the basket turning to score. She’s an aggressive rebounder making sure she always has a chance to grab the board. [player_tooltip player_id="337614" first="Taylor" last="Henderson"] (2022) took the ball coast to coast with speed and precision after grabbing the rebound on back to back plays. She finishes at the rim, and she knows how to find her teammates filling the lanes. She made smart decisions in transition passing back and forth between her and her teammate to throw off the defense. She will certainly do well at University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Aysia Hinton (2023) showed off a nice spin move on the block to score two. She hustled up and down the court making sure she’s available for some fast break points. She had some nice cuts without the ball flying by the defense. Anjela Marojevic (2023) had some nice moves driving the ball in the paint using a spin move to step back and show off her jumper. She did well driving to the hoop putting up a nice floater through contact. Dominika Paurova (2023) was a nuisance on defense grabbing steals and pushing it up the court. She did a great job running the floor pushing the ball up the court herself, and she found open teammates with ease as they were cutting to the basket. Destinee Barnes (2023) was aggressive going after passes on defense grabbing steals to push up the court. She has some good speed with the ball, and she attacks the basket going through contact. As a good ball handler, she also does well regrouping her team to set a play up when something broke down during their possession. [player_tooltip player_id="326209" first="Avery" last="Mills"] (2024) used a nice windmill move to score by the basket. She is efficient handling the ball making sure she can get by her opponents with ease. Her range shooting the ball has been on display for a while. She is playing with a high IQ as if she is ready to begin her career early at Liberty University.