Lady Cats heading to Glenrock and Buffalo

The Lady cats started their season last week at Torrington High School.

Coach David Villa said, “We knew we would be facing a feisty team from last year. Torrington came out fast with an 8-0 run on us. We looked anxious playing and forced some early turnovers. After we got through the first quarter things started to settle down for the team. At halftime it was 18-14. We felt we were in a good spot and just needed to take care of the ball and not rush our shooting. We would end up falling to them 50-39. We shot 7-19 from the free throw line. If we would have made half our free throws and not turn the ball over as much the outcome would have been different.”

Freshman Kamryn Farrell led the team with 11 points followed by senior Jayci Basse with 10.

“After the game we talked about needing to respond to our second game against Burns and learn from our mistakes in the Torrington game.”

Next up, the Lady Cats would take on Burns High School in the evening, and the goal for the team was to respond.

Coach Villa stated, “We came out strong and took an early lead. From the first game to the second game was night and day. The girls looked more fluid, and the ball movement was fast and strong. I remember making the comment at halftime that we looked good, and it was fun watching the tempo of the game and the decision making that was occurring. ”

Senior Ruth Johnson and freshman Jayssie Owsley led the team with 8 points each. Senior Jayci Basse also contributed with 7 points.”

Coach Villa said that one of the team goals is to have at least 20 deflections per game. “We were able to accomplish that in both the Torrington game as well as the Burns game. We led most of the game until the 4th quarter where the lead would dwindle down. We started to make several mistakes like we did against Torrington. We had opportunities to make some layups and would fall short to sustain the lead to solidify a win.”

It came down to a tie game with a free throw and if it would have been made, the team could have either gone into overtime or won with the extra free throw. The free throw was missed to tie the game. The final score was Burns 38 to the Lady Cats 35.

“It was a heartbreak for sure as we had controlled 90% of the game,” said coach Villa.

The Lady Cats final game would be against Wheatland on Saturday.

Coach Villa said, “I felt we had gained some momentum from our games on Friday so was confident we would fare well. We had knocked off Wheatland last year in regional play so knew they would want another opportunity at us. Wheatland came out fast and never looked back. We were out of positions both offensively and defensively. Our spacing on the floor was not good either. We rushed our passes and shots throughout the whole game. We could not gain any ground and the harder we fought back the deeper we dug ourselves in a hole. We were missing our senior Ruth Johnson for the first half due to prior commitments. I believe she would have helped establish some stronger rebounding initially. Ruth would be able to get on the floor in the second half but by that time the game was out of reach.”

Freshman Kamryn Farrell led the team with 7 points followed by fellow freshman Jayssie Owsley with 6 points.

“The team was down one of their post players all weekend, Austin Slagle, of which I am sure would have helped with rebounding,” said coach Villa.

The Lady Cats fell to Wheatland 61-23.

 Coach Villa said, “Overall, the weekend exposed areas that we will continue to work on that being rebounding, taking care of the ball at critical moments, having less than 11 turnovers, and getting quality shots at the rim. What I liked about the weekend was that we responded to our second game but just needed to carry that to Saturday’s game. We did well with some of the full court pressure and forced turnovers against our opponent. We are definitely a faster team compared to last year so we are excited for where the rest of the season will take us.”

The Lady Cats are battling some illness and injuries but are preparing for games against Glenrock Friday and Buffalo Saturday.