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GREENSBORO — Youth and a lack of depth were not a problem for the Greensboro-based Lady Phoenix basketball team in Tampa, Fla., on July 7.

Sporting just an eight-player squad, the team rolled through the Girls USSSA National Championship 12U division in six games and finished with a 50-42 championship victory against a Minnesota team to bring home the trophy.

The Lady Phoenix — directed by head coach John Richardson and assistants Kent Herman and Kristen Tuma — likes to be aggressive on defense at times, but had to be a little more conservative in the tournament because of numbers.

“We press and we trap when it’s available,” Richardson said. “But we couldn’t do a lot of that during this tournament because we only took eight girls.”

Because of the USSSA age cut-off date, some girls bump up to 12 as the season progresses and switch years — creating the need to jump up an age group. But Richardson said his team would have done so anyway and had “played up” in tournaments all season. His title-winning squad included five girls who could have played on the 10U team.

Some of the girls had played together last season, but it was the first year for the group as a whole. The team finished third in the state in the AAU 11U division this past May in Asheville, and Richardson said they probably need a little more size to edge closer to that title.

Their success in Florida came from a variety of performances, but it was guard Lucky Rudd (could have played 10U) who was the standout in claiming the tournament MVP award. She has some pretty good basketball genes as the daughter of former Wake Forest star and NBA player Delaney Rudd.

Lucky plays anywhere from point guard to small forward for Richardson, and intensity is apparently not a problem with her.

“Extremely good shooter, has knowledge of the game. Just flat out hustles,” the coach said.

He also labeled her a “lock-down defender.”

Three-point shooting is an overall strength for the Lady Phoenix, and they feature some serious size in 6-footer Brianna Best. Richardson also mentioned the shooting of Callie Herman, the standout athleticism of Tamara Thorpe and the play of Jordan Chavis, the smallest girl on the team.

It was Chavis’ 3-for-4 free-throw shooting down the stretch of the championship game that iced the win for the Phoenix.

Richardson said his team played a 3-2 zone in the championship against the tall and athletic MN Stars from Minnesota.

Though the team hasn’t been playing together for long, Richardson said he thinks they’ll stay together and continue to work in the offseason. Plus, they still have the AAU title to go after next year.