The Banner County Lady Wildcats chart a 37-25 win against the Minatare Lady Indians on Tuesday, Dec. 8 at home before a defeat at the hands of the Bayard ladies on Thursday, Dec. 10.
MaKenna Dahlgrin led the Lady Wildcats scoring against the Minatare Lady Indians, racking up 15 points through the game going 7/13 on two-point shots and making one of eight free throw attempts and pulling down 14 rebounds.
Sophomore Emily Singleton contributed nine points, making four of seven shots for the basket, and sinking 1/3 free throws. Singleton added one rebound, one assist and two steals in the team’s effort at their first win.
Paige Cross added four points of her own during the game, but really rebounded well, contributing seven, along with three assists, two steals and the team’s single successful block.
Singleton was the only one on the court who didn’t find her self in foul trouble, though the team played a good, clean defense, with a total of just 17 personal fouls.
“We have been working on sportsmanship and good attitudes specifically, and have improved greatly,” Banner County coach Brittany Cooper said.
In the end, the Lady Wildcats simply out-performed their opponents in their second home game of the season. Cooper credits good defense for the win, as much as good shooting.
“In our win against Minatare on Tuesday, we played well as a team. Most of the time we played with good court awareness, making good passes and getting good shots,” Cooper said. “We had a stretch of turnovers in the third quarter that Minatare capitalized on, cutting our lead and making it close, then in the fourth quarter we got lots of good shots, but couldn’t get them to fall.”
Leading the Minatare ladies was Zulema Garfio with six points, followed by Yesenia Ramirez with five, Jennifer Sims and Alexandra Garcia each contributed four.
“Overall we played very well as a team, and had good composure, which we’ve been working on,” Cooper said. “Everyone played pretty good defense that game.”
The Lady Wildcats traveled to Bayard to face off against the intense Bayard Lady Tigers on Thursday, Dec. 10 and came home with a devastating loss but not defeated.
Outnumbered, the Banner County girls faced an experienced team of athletes with points leader MaKenna Dahlgrin absent from the game due to illness, according to Cooper.
“We were definitely lacking size on the court and depth,” Cooper said. “We played fairly well though, not getting frustrated with their continual full-court press and defensive pressure and physicality.”
Courtney Knisley stepped up to score eight and lead the way for the Lady Wildcats with Savannah Jordan contributing four and Paige Cross adding three.
Knisley also led in rebounds, pulling down nine, followed by Shaylee White with seven and Cross with four. Jordan added three successful steals and Knisley followed with two while White, Emily Singleton, Paige Cross and Jadyn Cross each contributed one.
“Emily, Shay, and Paige all stepped up their inside game play and defense to fill the hole of not having MaKenna,” Cooper said.
The Banner County girls played a physical game totaling 15 personal fouls for the team of seven, but they were unable to stop the Lady Tigers on their roll to a score of 54 to Banner County’s 15.
Lead scorers for Bayard included sophomore Maho Shinjo and senior Kaylie Fiscus, each with 11 followed by Kylie Stuart, a freshman at Bayard with 10 points.
“It was a great character-building game, and I was proud of their effort and great attitudes,” Cooper said. “My guards in particular, Savannah (Jordan) and Courtney (Knisley), worked really hard on both ends of the court. Bailee Underhill and the rest of our small bench came in and played really hard and well.”
The Lady Wildcats ended their second week traveling to Hyannis for a non-conference game ending with a 74-11 loss on Saturday, Dec. 12, still missing Dahlgrin.
Underhill came off the bench to tie White as lead scorer for the Lady Wildcats, each with four points to their credit, followed by Knisley with two and Jordan with one.
Senior Paige Cross went to the basket with eight attempts but was unable to make any stick, she pulled down five rebounds.
White led with rebounds in this game, pulling down nine and Knisley followed with six.
Ball handling may gave the Banner County girls some trouble in the game, with Jordan turning the ball over 12 times and Cross followed with eight turnovers. White gave it up seven times and Singleton five.