Lady Cats show their determination

Traveling to Rocky Mountain, the Lady Bobcats basketball team played an exhaustive onslaught of games in just a short period of time. The girls had the determination to see it to the end and add a few more wins to their name. The varsity team currently owns a 7-3 record.

The Lady Cats topped Wind River 58-31. "It is a good win for us, but quite sloppy, considering it was the first game in 20 days," said coach Cory Sova. Even with the girls 25 turnovers during the game, Wind River had the greater struggle with 37. Haley McDermott scored 15 points shooting from the field and was perfect from the line. Randi Elisson had 12 points, seven from rebounds. She also shot well with five of nine field goals. Melissa Ward contributed six points, seven rebounds and five steals. Lizzy Lofink showed her game with six steals and four assists. Jules Ward had four assists and three steals. Korey Smith grabbed six rebounds, with Makayla George grabbing four rebounds. Coach Sova said he was impressed by the team effort that took them to the win.

The Lady Cats assault hit a lull during their game with Lovell, losing the game 32 -48. "They did a lot of nice things this game but only scored 5 points in the first 13 minutes of the game time and two points during the fourth quarter," said Sova. Holding Lovell to 11 points under their season average, Sova gave credit to the team's defense saying it was good enough to give them a chance. Closing a 10 point halftime deficit to a four point deficit late in the third quarter, the team lost their mojo. They battled a high turn over rate in the fourth quarter and the Lady Cats could not keep up. "We didn't shoot well from the field," said Sova. Three of 14 were three pointers and 7 of 25 were two pointers. Elisson had nine points and nine rebounds. Smith continued to lead in scoring with 10 points. Lofink stole the ball from Lovell four times and J. Ward stole it three times. McDermott lead with three assists and Lofink with two. "We have to work on consistency. We played a solid 3rd quarter and had some other moments of excellent ball - just too many extended periods of poor shooting and turning it over," Sova remarked.

The final game for the Lady Cats was close with Rocky Mountain not letting the Cats get away with much. In the end, the Cats took the victory 44 to 38. "Rocky played well down the stretch; it really wasn't turnovers that hurt us. We had a hard time containing Marissa Arnold; she had 13 of her 25 points in the fourth quarter. She is strong, moves well and has some size," Sova explained. Smith continued to rule the game with 15 points from shooting the ball, tallying up seven rebounds and three steals. J. Ward played well against Arnold. "She [J. Ward] will likely be guarding her more often during our conference match-ups," said Sova. Ellison had five rebounds and three assists, while Jessica Schierkolk had eight points and three rebounds with four assists. McDermott added nine points and had three rebounds. Ashlynn Weber hit a three point shot and got the team going early.

Lofink with two assists and three steals suffered an ankle injury, "She is as tough as they come and hopefully she will be ready to go for this weekend's home matchups," said Sova.

In other team news, the girls freshman team played hard at the Buffalo Tournament. "This group is improving each day. They got a little tired against Lovell, but Powell is very good," coach Sova remarked after the girls played three games in five hours. With Lovell winning the first game 37-24. Thermopolis took the Riverton game 39-27. Powell beat Thermopolis 51-20.

The junior varsity team is learning on the fly. "This squad is a mix of varsity and junior varsity players and they don't get to practice as a unit very often. They are learning quickly," said Sova. Thermopolis won against Riverside 37-15, but Lander proved more of a challenge beating the Lady Cats 41-26.

The Lady Cats play Big Piney and Friday and Meeteetse on Saturday with both games at home.