Lady Cats basketball action begins

The Lady Cat basketball team opened up season play this past weekend at the Coal Miner Classic in Wright. 

The Varsity team had three contests, losing to Big Horn in the opener 49-25. 

“The girls struggled from the field and more specifically, they had difficulties protecting the basketball,” head coach Matt McPhie said. “The team settled down in the second half and played better basketball.”

The team was led in scoring by Ashley McPhie with 10 points and McKenna Bomengen led the way rebounding with six rebounds.

In their second varsity contest, the girls took on Wright. 

Wright is a senior-laden experienced team who went through the tournament 4-0. Wright came out on top 68-49. 

McPhie said Wright attempted 30 free throws on their way to the victory, netting 20 of them. Defensively Thermopolis forced 17 turnovers. 

Bomengen had 11 rebounds and Sesi Jensen pulled down eight. In scoring, the girls were led by McPhie who had 16 points, including 8/10 from the foul line. Bomengen added six assists in the game.

In the final varsity game, the girls picked up a victory over Kaycee. 

The Bobcats forced 29 turnovers while playing great defense. 

“The girls played physical and tough defense,” McPhie said, “holding Kaycee to a total of five points each of the first three quarters and then allowing only seven in the final quarter.” 

The final score for the Lady Cats was 55-22.

The Cats were led on defense by Sesi Jensen with 10 rebounds, three steals and she added three assists to her stats. Kaylee Devries and Hailie Weber each added five rebounds. 

On the scoring side, the girls were led by McPhie with 15 points and Danni Jo Pebbles added nine points in the contest.

“We learned a lot about ourselves in this tournament,” McPhie said. “We are faced with the reality that we need to have some serious growth and development going forward. It will not be easy, but the girls are working extremely hard and are committed to the process and daily work required for improvement.”

The girls had two JV contests at the tournament and they won both of their games, beating Wright and Kaycee. 

On the JV side, the girls were led with outstanding effort from sophomores Reagan Severance, Rebecca Johnson, Elisa Weber, Dana Sandberg, and Jasmine Jensen. Freshman Kamry Bowman also played well for the JV team.