LadyCats Great Season Comes to an End at Area Playoff
LadyCats 39 - Roby Lady Lions 54
February 22, 2010
The wonderful 2009-2010 LadyCat basketball season came to a screeching halt in Albany Friday evening as the defending state champion Roby Lady Lions shot their way into the regional quarterfinals with a 54-39 point victory. The fifteen point margin in no way describes the closeness of this game.
The LadyCats pressure defense shook the Lady Lions up during the first period and the LadyCats jumped out to a 12-11 lead. Slowly, the Lady Lions amazing shooting percentage began to take it's toll on the LadyCats and the LadyCats went in at half time with a three point deficeit at 20-23! The third quarter was still pretty close with the Lady Lions extending their lead by only two points with a 30-35 lead going into the fourth and game deciding quarter. During the fourth quarter the LadyCats shooting went ice cold and the Lady Lions began to turn it on at the foul stripe with 13 out of 16 free throw points that sealed the fate of the hard working LadyCats. The more the LadyCats had to foul to stop the clock; the more the Lady Lions built their lead! It was a shooting clinic by the Lady Lions and it demonstrated how these young ladies made their way to Austin and the state tournament last year.
Regardless of the Lady Lions shooting prowess, our LadyCats fought hard throughout the game trying to turn things around. It was so frustrating for the LadyCats to work full court trying to force turnovers only to have the Lady Lions to walk to the foul line and sink more and more free throws! The Lady Lions scored 24 of 35 free throws for nearly 70%. The LadyCats also had a pretty good night from the free throw line with 12 of 19 for 63%.
This was possibly the best game that point guard Kimberly Bell has played all year long with 13 points and a smothering defensive game up and down the court! Haily Kramer added 10 points with some very clutch shots there in the last quarter! It's hard to knock any of the LadyCats on effort and defensive hard work! Each and every one of them were blanketing their girl and causing turnovers that Roby is simply not used to committing! It was just not a great night for shooting up and down the LadyCats lineup. I'm sure the tight Lady Lions defense had something to do with that as well.
The 2009-2010 LadyCat season was extremely exciting and very rewarding and it was very obvious that they just kept getting better and better! We will sure miss seniors Tara Evans and Whitney Norman next year but there is no doubt that the LadyCats will only reload for next season and will come out ready to advance into the month of March 2011. The season is barely over and I'm already getting ready for next year! I know the girls will be spending a lot of time in the gym shooting and getting stronger for a return match with the Lady Lions! That would be a sweet way to advance to the next level! Thanks LadyCats for a great season!
