COLONY — Crest High’s girls basketball team made a jump from only winning two games last year to winning 10 games this season, a remarkably quick turnaround.
A large portion of that success has been freshman Aylee Beckmon who served as Crest’s starting point guard. Beckmon was a newcomer to the team and was also accompanied by first-year head coach Steve Zimmerman.
Beckmon’s older sister, senior Haylee Beckmon, was also on the team. Aylee said she was able to learn a lot from Haylee and looked up to her as a role model. The sisters have a similar style of play. They crash hard to the basket, possess good passing skills and deliver tough on-ball defensive pressure.
The Lady Lancer was most content with how the entire season panned out and advancing to the second round of the substate playoffs.
Even though she wasn’t a part of last year’s team, Beckmon knew the new coach’s mentality would be different.
“I was really happy with it. I thought a new coach coming in was great because we’ve known him (Steve Zimmerman) for a while and I knew he would help me a lot,” said Beckmon.
“Coach puts his time in for everything,” Beckmon continued. “He watches film and comes up with perfect plays. He takes so much time out of his day to help the team.”
Aylee grew up playing basketball alongside her older sisters, Haylee and Rylee, and their dad who enjoys guiding the girls on the court.
Their chemistry on the court is easy to detect.
“Haylee was one of our higher scorers. She constantly had post moves and would somehow make crazy shots. She gives it her all,” Beckmon said. “I was really happy I got to play for at least one year with her.”
Getting to play together as friends is one thing but lining up next to a sibling on the court raises the experience to a whole new level, she said.
Beckmon recalled a couple games from this past season. In a home battle against Northeast-Arma, the freshman hit a free throw to seal a 42-41 nailbiter victory. She also finished with a team-high nine points and played relentless defense to propel Crest.
“In the first half it was pretty rough and our team wasn’t doing the absolute greatest but then after halftime we brought it out,” said Beckmon. “Somehow we got the points up and it was obviously really nerve-wracking, especially shooting the last two free throws.”
Another win which meant a lot to the Lady Lancers was a playoff game against Marmaton Valley, a team Crest lost to twice in the regular season. Each of the first two losses against the Wildcats were single-digit blows. In the third match-up, the Lady Lancers won 29-23.
“Beating Marmaton Valley in the playoffs was the best,” said Beckmon. “Some of us had one goal this year which was to beat Moran. We knew we were going to play them twice but we lost twice in the regular season. When we beat them, it was awesome.”
