Lady Cats drop two over weekend

Last Thursday night marked Senior Night for the Bobcat girls basketball team, an evening where the girls play on their home court for the last time.

Unfortunately, the evening didn't go well for the Lady Cats, dropping the game to Worland, 59-32.

"They got off to a very rough start during the game with the high emotions making it very difficult for them," coach Cory Sova said.

Lady Cats putting numbers up on the board included Haley McDermott with 14, Ashlynn Weber with six, Korey Smith, five, Sesi Jensen, three, Liz Rhodes with two and McKenna Bomengen with two points.

McDermott had three assists to go with her 14 points and Makayla George and Weber each had seven rebounds for the night.

Lizzy Lofink added two assists and Sesi Jensen, two steals.

"Again, we struggled with getting shots to fall," Sova said. "We missed at least nine shots right near the rim that we simply have to make to be competitive. We ran our offense fine, but Worland's size bothered us on other shots."

Sova said the girls struggled from the perimeter too, even though they had some good looks from the area.

They didn't play that badly, but Worland did a good job of getting the ball to their big girls, something the team just couldn't overcome.

"I told the girls that when emotions are high, the importance of the evening is obvious. As hard as it is to play a Senior Night game, it is absolutely a celebration," Sova said. "Their years of hard work and commitment was on display one final time on the Bobcat court.

"I told them that they had nothing to be ashamed of as they played hard, smart and together.

"These girls really appreciated all the family, student and staff support that they received. They were not pleased with how they played overall against Worland, but rebounded quickly, playing one of their best games the next evening at Buffalo."

At Buffalo on Saturday night, Sova said Smith was on fire shooting the ball in the first half.

"She carried us," he said. "In a good performance, she added six rebounds and two steals."

McDermott also had six rebounds and three assists to go with her nine points, and Jules Ward did a great job blocking out Buffalo's big girls with seven rebounds. She also added three assists and two steals to her stats.

Weber hit some big shots during the game and had three rebounds, too.

Sova said Lofink shot the ball extremely well, hitting a couple of "threes" with another one having her foot on the three-point line. She also chalked up two assists.

George had an inside presence against the Lady Buffs, adding a nice 15-foot jumper, which Sova said was great to see since she'd been fighting her shooting lately.

"She has excellent rotation on the ball and does well when she gets the correct arc on her shot," he said.

Bomengen fought hard for four rebounds, and she and Sesi Jensen gave some good support off the bench.

"I was really happy for the girls," Sova said. "They played with poise and confidence.

"Going into a hostile environment and only having nine total turnovers was outstanding. It would have been nice to get to the free-throw line a few more times, but we were able to get there 10 times, compared to Buffalo's 29, and they outscored us 16 to six.

"Another negative for the game was Buffalo getting 15 offensive rebounds," Sova said. "We can't afford any mistakes in this area to win big games.

"We will continue to work on this as well as game shooting situations. We shot the ball OK from the three-point line, but only converted on 5/23 two-point attempts."

The Lady Cats have just one game on the schedule this week, an away game against the Rawlins Lady Outlaws. Rawlins came out on top 45-40 a copule of weeks ago and Sova said the girls are going to demonstrate utmost focus throughout the week in preparation for the rematch.

"They are looking for momentum as regionals are just a couple of weeks away," he said. "If they can build on their Buffalo performance, that would be awesome."

Junior varsity will tip of at 4 p.m. in Rawlins with varsity starting at 5:30 p.m. There will be no freshman game in Rawlins.