Midseason marks improvements for Lady T-cats

After reaching the midseason mark, the Lady Tigercats have begun to show tremendous improvements on the hardwood in league competition. The Lady Tigercats hosted Liberty Christian on Friday night and challenged the Lady Patriots in a hard fought battle, eventually ending in a 45-30 loss for the Lady Tigercats.

The Lady Tigercats stayed neck-in-neck with Liberty Christian until the third quarter when the Lady Patriots outscored the LWK team, 19-6. The Lady Tigercats had only trailed by four points at the half.

Tough defense and a full court press in the final minutes of the game allowed the Lady Tigercats to hold Liberty Christian to seven points in the fourth quarter, as well as force turnovers. The change in possession helped the Lady Tigercats outscore the Patriots team in the final quarter and put up one of the best games all season.

The Lady Tigercats have consistently improved as a team throughout the season on both ends of the court. While early in the season the LWK athletes struggled with breaking the full-court press, the team settled and was able to move the ball up the court against Liberty Christian. Offensively, the team has also improved on ball movement, which effectively had led to better shots at the basket.

Leading the team in scoring was Lindsey Miller with 10 points, followed by Jazzmyn Gordon with eight.

Kadie Whinery added five, while LeAnn Blauert put up four points. Jessica Guske ended the night with five points.

The Lady Tigercats went on the road Saturday and returned home with a 67-22 loss at the hands of Tekoa-Oakesdale, the second place ranked team in the Southeast 1B league. The rematch against the two teams showed the Lady Tigercats’ improvement in the final score, as the LWK athletes more than doubled their total score while holding Tekoa-Oakesdale to the same amount of points.

Throughout the game, the Lady Tigercats struggled to contain Jacey Johnson and Mattie Jo Johnson, who put up a combined 36 points for the Lady Nighthawks. Tekoa-Oakesdale jumped out to an early lead over the Lady Tigercats and secured a 22-point lead going into halftime.

The Lady Nighthawks continued their scoring superiority against the LWK defense, outscoring the Lady Tigercats 31-8 in the second half.

Blauert led the Lady Tigercats in scoring with six points, followed closely by Miller and Guske, who each had four.

Whinery, Gordon, Nicole Harder and Jazlynn Webb all had two points apiece.

The Lady Tigercats were defeated by St. John-Endicott on Tuesday, 55-28.