Rough road ahead in second half of Lady Tigercats’ season

The Lady Tigercats traveled to the Dayton Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29 returning with two losses in the non-league tournament. The Lady Tigercats played both Wahkiakum and Dayton during the two-day tournament.

The first match up for the Lady Tigercats was against the Wahkiakum Mules where the Lady Tigercats lost by a final score of 35-63.

Logan Harder led the team with a total of 16 points during the game.

Anne Fleming scored a total of eight points, Brooklynn Hostetler scored four, Jena Goude ended the game with three points, and both Lindsey Miller and Kadie Whinery had two points each.

“We played well against Wahkiakum, they just shot really well against us and came out with the win,” said coach Tim Stamper. “Wahkiakum had the two Olsen sisters who combined for a total of 42 points. They were both outside shooters.”

On the second day of the tournament, the Lady Tigercats took on the Dayton Bulldogs, losing the game with a final score of 18-51.

“We came out flat against Dayton. They played tough defense and it was a very up-tempo game,” said Stamper.

Hostetler led the team in scoring with seven points, closely followed by Fleming with six points, Lexi Hopkins had three and Harder ended the game with two points.

During the Dayton game, the Lady Tigercats had a lot of turnovers, which was the biggest weakness in the game. Stamper said that on games where the score is not as high as he would have hoped, there is one good thing he always sees during the games.

“The girls work hard, they don’t give up no matter what and that’s the best thing about it. And that’s something I’m really proud of them for. It’s always those little victories,” said Stamper.

Harder, Hostetler and Fleming have all been consistent scorers for the Lady Tigercats this season, but Stamper hopes that he can help all of the other girls get points on the board.

“As a coach, I want to have all the kids involved, I want to see them all score,” Stamper said. “For now, we’re going to work on our perimeter players. We need them to score more points. We’re just not very big so we need to work on outside shooting.”

With working on outside shooting, Stamper wants the Lady Tigercats to continue to play good defense, be aggressive and keep out of foul trouble. Teams continue to press with back court pressure and Stamper wants to team to play tough and run offense with less turnovers.

“We have gone to the Dayton Tournament for years. It’s always hard to come away from the turkey and pie and play hard. Hopefully we’ll get all of that out of our systems before this weekend!” said Stamper. “We’re going into the second half of the season, and the schedule isn’t getting any easier from here. We have some tough teams in the league.”

The Lady Tigercats’ next game will be against St. John-Endicott on Friday, Jan. 6, at St. John. The game after will be on Saturday, Jan. 7, in Washtucna against Tekoa-Oakesdale.