A cooler head is prevailing on Maylin Stampley.

The Port Neches-Groves senior is passionate about her game, but learning to keep her focus and not let frustration throw her off. Stampley and Indians coach Kara Skinner agree on that.

“I’ve been improving on staying composed all four quarters and not losing my head,” Stampley said. “That’s been a big struggle off and on for four years, but I think that’s coming together.”

“She is feisty, and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Skinner said. “She’s got a lot of personality. She gets going and you’ve got to calm her down, but that’s who she is. That’s her personality. She’s cooled it a little bit. Some of that’s learning how to play through your emotions, but I think that’s part of what sports is for: learning how to harness that emotion you feel and that adrenaline and learning how to play through a lot of that.”

Stampley scored 14 points and got three rebounds and three assists in Friday’s 58-53 win against the Memorial Lady Titans. She is The Port Arthur News Girls Player of the Week.

Stampley was a part of a solid Indians offense that kept pace with a Lady Titans offense the Indians had trouble defending against.

“We got it done,” Skinner said. “It was a lot closer than it should have been, for sure. Defensively we did not execute. It was just a matter of us putting up more points than they did. Every time that they went down the floor they scored and we could not stop them defensively, so if we hadn’t turned around and came back down and made a bucket every time they made a bucket, then it would have been a totally different ballgame.”

Stampley scores the majority of her points through drives, and while it’s not where she wants it to be, she says her outside shot is getting a lot better.

“I’ve been sticking to my pull-ups and against Memorial I got a lot of fast-break layups,” Stampley said. “Most of my scoring has been drives, but I’m still working on it.”

She says she sees the floor a lot better now, too, which helps get the ball into the hands of more people.

“I think I’m getting people the ball, seeing the floor, looking at the post more, trying to spread the offense, especially if we’re Box-and-1 and they’re trying to shut me down with outside shots, even driving and kicking out,” she said. “I’m getting people involved better than I have in the past.”

Stampley’s outside shot and free throws are consistent in practice, but during games she feels herself slipping back into bad forms. She’s working on ironing down a free throw routine, but in the meantime, she’s finding success by driving to the basket and kicking out.

Skinner says Stampley is beginning to understand there’s more to the game than always scoring.

“She’s doing a better job of getting more people involved, maybe playing through if her shot’s not falling,” Skinner said. “It’s not just all about her scoring, and I think she’s grown as far as her game’s concerned. I think she’s grown in that department.”

The Indians (15-8, 3-1 in 21-5A) travel to play Barbers Hill for tipoff at 7 tonight. The Eagles are 21-4 and 4-0. Stampley says it’s going to take a more solid defense to come out on top tonight.

“They’re going to drive on us, so if we’re disciplined, defensively, I think we’ll be ok,” she said. “But we’re going to have to go hard, definitely going to be a tough competition, and then we’re going to have to transfer on offense.”