Lady Cats battle hard, come up short against Newcastle

The Lady Bobcat varsity basketball team battled against Newcastle Friday night, coming up short with a 54-41 loss.

The Lady Cats were trailing 30-17 at half time, but came out playing excellent defense in the third quarter, closing the gap to within two points at various times. Going into the fourth, they were behind by just four points, 35-31.

Newcastle was on-point from the free throw line, dropping in 17 of 18 during the fourth quarter.

“In the final quarter we didn’t hit the shots we needed to make,” said head coach Matt McPhie. “I give credit to Newcastle for making an incredible percentage from the foul line to claim the victory.”

McKenna Bomengen led the Cats with 20 points and Ashley McPhie was six-for-six from the free throw line, adding eight points for the team. Bomengen also had eight rebounds, followed by seven from Sesi Jensen.

As a team, the girls shot four for 28 from the three-point arc.

“We must do a better job shooting the basketbal when teams choose to play a zone against us,” McPhie said. “Lexus Volker had a big game for Newcastle with 24 points, including 14 for 14 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to seal the game.”

Saturday found the Lady Cats in Douglas taking on the number one team in girls’ 3A, the Bearcats. Final score on Saturday was in Douglas’ favor, 65-18.

“Douglas is an excellent, balanced basketball team,” McPhie said. “They forced 22 turnovers i the first half, leading to a large, 44-10 lead.

Douglas has been playing at an incredibly high level, even beating the number two team in the state, Buffalo, by 38 points on Friday night.

“The team fought hard and did a nice job of competing to the end. Unfortunately, we shot just 18 percent from the field and only one for 10 from the foul line.”

Bomengen and McPhie lead the scoring with six points each. Tahja Hunt chipped in three assists and Jensen added six rebounds to her stats.

The JV team had a hard-fought game against Douglas, too, falling 59-16.

Emme Norsworthy lead the scoring for the young team with six points, followed by five points from Dayna Crow.

The freshmen lost as well, 36-19.

The freshman girls had a slow start, only scoring off two free throw attempts in the first half. Both teams struggled with handling some full court pressure that lead to easy baskets for Douglas.

All three teams will be in action again this Friday and Saturday night with the Varsity at home vs Buffalo on Friday night at 6 p.m. and against Big Piney at home on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.