The season ended before they were ready, but the Florala Lady Wildcats turned heads all around the state after an impressive regular season.

“All-in-all, it was a great season,” Lady Wildcats head coach David Bass said. “We would love to still be playing, but it just wasn’t in the cards for us this year.”

Bass said his team impressed him all season long.

“This is an extremely hard working group of young ladies,” Bass said. “They are the most hard working group that I’ve seen. They bought into the program and we had a great year.”

One of the more impressive stats this year for the Lady Wildcats was their ability to keep teams from scoring.

“Our defense is the area where we had the most improvement,” Bass said. “We outscored our opponents by 200 points this year. We realized that defense was an area that we needed to improve on, and the girls went out and did just that.”

Bass said that he has been extremely impressed with how well the team clicked.

“It’s just amazing how they work so well together,” Bass said. “We preach family and they treat each other as family. They work so well together as one unit. I’m very proud of the outcome of this season. They never gave up and they kept on fighting through the tough times.”

Bass said that there are several games that stick out to him from this season.

“There are seven games that really stick out,” Bass said. “Our six area wins and then our one loss in the area championship are what stick out. Winning the regular-season area championship, coming into the tournament as the No. seed in the area and then losing in the area tournament has made this group even more hungry.

The Lady Wildcats will graduate a couple of players from this year’s squad, but Bass said the majority will be back for the 2019-2020 season.

“We should be very competitive for the next few years,” Bass said. “These girls have the work ethic to keep improving. We just have to get in here and polish up some fundamentals.”

Bass said the successful season has breathed life into the program.

“They have all of the girls in Florala eager to be a part of the Lady Wildcats’ basketball program,” Bass said. “This group has laid the foundation for the middle school and elementary school girls. We want to continue to build onto what we have started.”

With season over, Bass said the team will go back to work preparing for next year.

“We are going to continue to build on our success from this year,” Bass said. “They are just a hard working group of young ladies. They all hate losing more than they love winning. That’s something that I think can carry us a long way in the future.”

The Lady Wildcats finished the year 24-7 and were ranked No. 7 in Class 1A in the final ASWA poll of the season.