Lady Cats struggle against Cody and Lovell on the road

The Lady Bobcat basketball team spent Friday and Saturday in Lovell at the Big Horn Basin Tournament, coming out 1-2 for the weekend.

Friday, the girls took on Cody and coach Cory Sova said they got off to a very poor start and never could get on track, losing to the Lady Broncs 52-16.

“We had some good looks at the basket, but struggled for 32 minutes,” Sova said. “We shot poorly on two-point shots both near and away from the rim, made none of our three-pointers and were only 4-12 from the line.

“This was a game where Cody had a huge experience advantage, starting five seniors and us only having one upperclassman.”

The Lady Broncs shot well and were able to get eight offensive rebounds out of their overall 21 field goal and free throw misses. Sova said that ratio is not good and our girls have to do a better job of blocking out on rebound opportunities.

“The girls know this was undoubtedly our poorest performance of the season,” he said.

McKenna Bomengen battled hard grabbing eight rebounds and Kaylee DeVries added three. No one else on the team had more than two rebounds.

Sesi Jensen shot the ball well, but played very limited minutes because of foul trouble.

Haley McDermott led in assists with two and added two steals to her stats. Bomengen and Jensen also had two steals each.

Turnovers were about equal for both teams with the Lady Cats having 21 to the Lady Broncs’ 20. Cody was able to drop in two three-pointers while Thermop couldn’t hit from beyond the circle.

Things were a bit better on Saturday against Lovell even though the Lady Cats lost to the Lady Bulldogs, 42-26.

Sova said it was a competitive first half, even though the girls only made 5-19 overall field goal attemps.

On the postive side, however, they made 10 of 11 free throws in the first half to keep them in the game. The girls were down just 24-22 at the end of the half, even though they had 12 turnover and gave up eight offensive rebounds.

Shooting woes continued to plague the Lady Cats in the second half with just 2-20 on overall shots, but it was still a 24-24 game with three minutes left in the third quarter.

“The girls did fight hard throughout the game,” Sova said, “but the rebounding and turnover issues continued on throughout the game. We allowed 10 offensive rebounds and had 11 more turnovers.

“Tack this on to the poor shooting and the results aren’t what we would have liked. We did some little things well, like fighting for loose balls and holding Lovell to 18 points the second half with only six in the fourth quarter, but our overall 18 percent field goal shooting made it hard for us to keep the pace.”

Against Lovell, McDermott had five rebounds and two assists to go with her 11 points. Tahja Hunt also had two assists.

Ashley McPhie had a nice game with nine points and six rebounds.

Bomengen had five rebounds and Sesi Jensen had four along with leading the team in steals with three.

Emme Norsworthy got some extensive varsity minutes and grabbed four rebounds. Sova said she is getting more comfortable with each game.

The Lady Cats came out on top in their last game on Saturday, beating Wright 53-44.

Coach Sova said this was a good, solid performance from the girls with nearly four scoring in the double digits.

Shooting was at 50 percent on two-pointers, but they were shut out when it came to three-point hoops.

The girls were aggressive offensively and got to the free throw line 36 times, a season high. A few of those were late in the game when Wright was forced to foul in order to stay in the game.

On the downside, the Lady Cats missed eight of 15 in the fourth quarter. Sova added that rebounding will have to continue to be the emphasis in practice as Wright managed three of four buckets on rebounds.

“Whenever we struggled, Haley (McDermott) stepped up and made play after play,” Sova said. “She ended with 18 points, eight rebounds, and led us in assists.”

Hunt had her best overall game, contributing nine points and three rebounds, which were big ones in the fourth quarter.

Sesi Jensen also stepped up big with a double-double, 10 points and 11 rebounds.

“Between handling the ball, attacking the basket and breaking down the defense and getting loose balls, she gives us constant energy,” Sova added.

McPhie gave the team needed rebounds and Sova said she is fundamentalling doing a great job on each rebounding opportunity.

Wright did make a nice run in the third quarter, but the Lady Cats responded well.

McDermott and Bomengen made nice three-point plays the old fashioned way, getting found to go to the basket for a nice finish.

The Lady Cats are up next at home against Lander. Start time is 6 p.m.