Young Lady Bobcats show resiliency

In spite of their best efforts, the Bobcat girls basketball team had a rough go-round at the Regional Tournament in Douglas last weekend.

On Thursday, they were pitted against the host team, the Douglas Lady Bearcats, who are undefeated for their season. The Cats fell to the Bearcats, 23-62.

Coach Cory Sova said, with the exception of a couple of girls, this was the first Regional Tourney experience for the entire team.

"I thought the girls did a good job of attacking Douglas early in the game," Sova said. "We got 17 decent looks at the basket in the first quarter, but unfortunately had six of those attempts blocked, I believe all of them by Douglas' big 6'4" girl."

Sova thought the girls did some good things throughout the game, but just couldn't keep pace with the Lady Bearcats. He said it was disappointing to only get to the free-throw line four times.

"I was proud of our girls for battling until the final buzzer," he said. "We did a pretty good job taking care of the ball, with the exception of the second quarter, where we had 10 of our 22 turnovers."

McKenna Bomengen did a good job grabbing six rebounds to go with her six points.

Sesi Jensen had five rebounds and Kaylee DeVries was right behind her with four. Ashley McPhie pulled down three rebounds and two assists while Haley McDermott grabbed two steals and had three assists.

All 12 girls were able to get some court time and gain some regional experience the first night.

Friday's game against Newcastle was frustrating for everyone involved according to Sova.

"We really struggled shooting the ball," he said. "If we would have shot just 32 percent, even less if they were three-pointers, it would have been enough to win the game."

The Cats free-throw percentage was right at their season average.

"We did allow a couple of easy baskets as we had to extend our defense in an effort to change the pace of the game because of our offensive struggles," Sova said. "As I have all year, I really appreciated our girls' effort. We were in severe foul trouble, which added to our frustration and McKenna (Bomengen) and Sesi (Jensen) had very limited minutes, which really hurt."

Aspen Jensen and Bomengen were perfect from the free-throw line. Bomengen and DeVries each had six rebounds, McDermott had five along with two assists. There were five girls on the team who nabbed steals.

With 18 of the 19 girls on the team being freshmen and sophomores, Sova said the coaches were impressed how they showed resiliency and kept at it.

"All of these girls are very good students, which is awesome," Sova said. "They always took care of their responsibilities in the classroom.

"We will obviously miss Haley (McDermott). I couldn't have asked for a better young lady to lead our team and program this year. Her priorities of scholarship, leadership, kindness, participation in activities and athletics and her community service are definitely a good message to our young girls."