Lady Bobcats face tough teams

Last week, the Hot Springs County High School Girls Basketball Team was on the road at Lander on Thursday and then came home for a game against Powell on Saturday. The Lady Cats faced two over five-hundred teams, and although they played a great first half against Powell, Thermopolis was unable to come away with a win in either game.

The Lander Lady Tigers came into the week sporting a 10 and 9 record on the season, and played well against the Lady Cats, winning the game by a score of 57 to 36. The Lady Cats were playing their final road game for the regular season and faced the determined team from Lander, who were in control of the game from the outset.

Although the Lady Cats rebounded well, and patiently worked to get some good looks beyond the arc, their three-point shots were just not consistently dropping. The team had shown a growing confidence in recent games, however, that confidence did not make an appearance on Thursday.

Jayssie Owsley had three 3-point shots, Maggie Landon had two 3-point shots and Chloee Owsley also sank a 3-pointer.

Jayssie Owsley scored 17 points, Maggie Landon 6 points, Chloee Owsley 3 points and Dazlynn Hunt, Kamryn Farrell, Austin Slagle, Ina King and Hannah Hill each had 2 points.

Coach Tyler Weinberger said, “We just never got into a rhythm in that game, and it hurt our chances.”

On Saturday, the Lady Cats opened the game against the 12 and 6 team from Powell with some high quality play, raising some eyebrows on the visiting team. The team returned to playing with confidence, and deployed a tight and effective 3-2 defense, forcing Powell to shoot from outside the arc. Thermopolis went an impressive 7 of 8 from the free-throw line in the first half. Half-time found the Lady Cats ahead of the very good Lady Panthers team by five points.

While Powell’s generally reliable 3-point shots were not falling in the first half, the second half saw a return of their skill in outside shooting. The Lady Panthers continued to engage a tight press on defense, and even though the Lady Cats have shown improvement in beating the press, they continue to have difficulty – leading to some ill-advised cross-court and long-court passes, which resulted in three straight turnovers to begin the second half.

The third-quarter saw a ten point swing in favor of Powell, that erased the Lady Cats lead. Kamryn Farrell and Hanna Hill each had 3-point shots fall in the third, however, the Lady Cats put up just 8 points for the entire second half. The game’s final score was Powell 44 and Thermopolis 28. While the second half was disappointing, the skill and poise the Lady Cats demonstrated in the first half, clearly shows the team can compete with any team in the conference.

After the game, Coach Weinberger commented, “The game was really frustrating. We got sped up a bit in the second half, and didn’t maintain the great effort we had made earlier in the game. We have spent a lot of time in practice working on free-throws, and it was nice to see that work pay off.”

Dazlynn Hunt had 7 points, Jayssie Owsley 6 points, Hanna Hill 6 point, Kamryn Farrell 4 points, Austin Slagle 3 points and Maggie Landon had 2 points.

Four seniors from the team were recognized for their contributions to the team and the school including Ina King, Dazlynn Hunt, Maggie Landon and Kandance Bowman.

Next up for the Lady Cats will be the 3A West Regional Tournament, which Thermopolis will host this week. The Lady Cats will face Mountain View on Thursday with the game starting at 5:30 p.m.