Lady Cats struggle at East-West Basketball Classic

The Lady Bobcats were in Douglas over the weekend, coming away with a 1-2 record from the East-West Classic.

Head coach Cory Sova said the first game, a 55-31 loss against Lander, was not pretty.

"The only real positive was taking care of the ball," Sova said. "We only had 13 turnovers. Lander struggled with 26 turnovers – some forced by us and some unforced."

Sova said shooting was atrocious with 13 for 64 overall, although some shots rolled the rim and rolled right out.

"We also struggled with rebounding and must learn to block out every time, or good teams will capitalize when we don't," he added.

Jules Ward finished the game with six rebounds, four steals and two assists. Lizzy Lofink grabbed five steals and three rebounds.

Mary Ryan, in her first action of the year, had four rebounds. Makayla George added four rebounds and two steals.

Korey Smith struggled a bit with her three-point shots, but shot well on the inside.

Smith added 12 points to the tally, followed by Lofink with five, Ashlynn Weber tipped in four along with Liz Rhodes. Ward scored two pints along with Haley McDermott and George.

The girls were basically out-shot with Lander dropping 15-35 from the two-point line while the Lady Cats were 11-40. Thermop took more chances from the three-point line, but hit just 2-24 compared to Lander 6-9.

Things didn't get any better against the Lady Bulldogs of Lovell with the Cats shooting just 8 for 54, losing 45-28

"We got a lot of shots because of good offensive rebounding and winning the turnover battle," Sova said. "We will continue to work on shooting skills. The girls are struggling now, but are capable of shooting much better. I am confident it will come – they are quite a resilient group."

McDermott and Lofink led with six rebounds each. McDermott also added two steals along with Lofink's three assists, three steals and four rebounds.

Weber grabbed four from the boards with George and Smith pitching in five and four rebounds respectively.

"I was really happy how we responded in the second half," Sova said. "After a miserable first half we were down 28 to 11, but came back and outscored Lovell, even with some continued poor shooting."

McDermott dropped in eight points along with Smith, George had six points, Weber, Rhodes and McKenna Bomengen rounded out the scoring with two-points each.

The Lady Cats hit just 5-32 in the two-point column compared to Lovell's 11-25. For three-pointers, Thermop dropped in three of 22, while Lovell made three of seven.

Things really looked up, though, with a win against Riverton, 37-28.

"Good win for our girls," Sova said. "A little better shooting performance.

"We dominated the game defensively, but we did put them on the free throw line too many times so we'll have to clean this up. The girls moved the ball well on offense, they are executing quite well, just missing too many shots including uncontested layups and short shots."

George had 10 rebounds for the game and took the ball to the basket well, making four of seven attempts. She also added two steals to her stats.

Ward stepped up and had 10 rebounds as well along with two assists.

Smith was still struggling from the three-point line, but shot well from mid-range and added six rebounds as well.

Lofink moved the ball well with six assists and three steals, backed up by three rebounds and two steals from McDermott.

The Lady Cats won't see action again until after Christmas break when they are tentatively scheduled to open the Big Horn Basin Tournament on Thursday, Jan. 5. Thermop hosts half the teams, eight, through that Saturday.

In the meantime, the girls will continue to work on fundamentals throughout the break, taking some time off just before and just after Christmas.