On Jan. 10 the Lady Spartans made the short trip south to Ekalaka to battle the Lady Dawgs. This was a game the girls had been waiting for since the first meeting got postponed due to December weather. Our Lady Spartans brought the energy and excitement from the tip and jumped out to an early lead. I thought we did a really good job of pressuring their players and taking them out of their game right away. We were able to get 17 steals in the game and held their big scorer to just 2 points. That says a lot for someone that probably averages around 20 or more. Madison O’Connor shot the ball really well in the third quarter, hitting 6 three pointers in the quarter and 8 for the game, possibly tying the school record and tying her season single scoring record with 41 points. We were able to keep the lead consistent throughout the second half and got 9 of 10 players in the books scoring that night. The final score of the game was 71-30 in favor of the Lady Spartans.
Next up was a long trip to Lame Deer on Jan. 13 for an all extended day of basketball shared with the boys teams. This one, a lot like the Ekalaka game, we were able to apply good ball pressure and create a lot of turnovers and jump out to an early lead. Madison O’Connor got off to a great start and continued that in the third quarter and ended up with 45 points breaking her own school record and we as a team ended up with 96, just too shy of tying the school record. We ran the floor well as a team which lead to easy points. Freshman Jocelyn Graham had a great game finishing with 15 points all while we got all ten players in the book for scoring against Lame Deer. The ladies won this game as well with a final score of 96-50.
January 14, was set up to get some revenge on a good MC Cowgirls team that we let slip away in MC our second game of the year. However, the Cowgirls came out and played a really good first half and we did not. We started slow and found ourselves down as many as 19 in the first half and 14 at half. Our shooting and ball handling just wasn’t as good as we had been but I give the MC girls credit also. We talked about getting back into the game one possession at a time during halftime and getting a little more aggressive offensively and defensively. We had to go smaller and quicker to do so. The second half was way better for us in all aspects of the game. Our girls played very hard and we were able to tie the game up with under a minute before falling just short in the final for the second time this year. The final game score was a very close 58- 54. It was a tough loss but one we can look back at and say a lot of good things about and learn from it and hopefully the next close game we come out on the other end of it. We practice free throws everyday and it’s a part of the game that one night they seem easy and next is the opposite but it never fails. Close games always are won or lost and this game was no different. Next up for the Lady Spartans is on the road in Lodge Grass Friday and home Saturday against St. Labre. We appreciate the crowds that have been coming and supporting us throughout the season. Keep coming….
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