Follow Us 
Current Poll
| Wildcats run over Baldwin to take title |
 |
 |
 |
| Sports - Louisburg | |||
| Written by Andy Brown | |||
| Wednesday, 17 December 2008 09:00 | |||
 The hex has finally been broken. Technically it was broken three different times during last week’s Bulldog/Wildcat Classic in Baldwin City, but Saturday’s game with Baldwin exorcised the demons for the Louisburg girls’ basketball team. It had been nine seasons since the Wildcats won a game in the Baldwin High School gymnasium. So, after the Wildcats won the Dec. 9 game over Burlington and survived Anderson County 31-30 on Friday, they still had their sights set on the host school. Louisburg officially broke the streak with an impressive 56-38 win over Baldwin to win its second-straight Bulldog/ Wildcat Classic and is off to a perfect 4-0 start. “The girls played great,” coach Terry Tinich said. “They jumped out early and never looked back. It was big to get that monkey off our back but even bigger to win our second consecutive Wildcat/Bulldog tournament championship.” The Wildcats had the advantage on the inside with senior forwards Katelynn O’Hara and Abbey Frazier. Frazier led all scorers with 17 points and O’Hara added 16. Louisburg jumped out to a big first quarter lead and took control with a 21-11 advantage, but the Wildcat defense put the game away in the third quarter and allowed only seven Bulldog points. “Abbey and Katelynn played very well inside,” Tinich said. “They started clicking together and paced us from the very start. The guards also did a good job of getting them the ball." “The first quarter was big, but the third quarter was bigger. We challenged them at halftime and told them if they win the third quarter then the game was ours.” Louisburg (4-0) might not have been in the position it was in Saturday had it not held off a pesky Anderson County team. Anderson County held the lead for most of the game before Louisburg staged a rally with final minutes of the fourth quarter. The Wildcats were not as crisp Friday, but they responded to the challenge in Saturday’s contest. “We looked like a completely different team out there Saturday night,” Tinich said. “We talked Saturday morning about playing to our potential instead of playing to the other team. They responded very well Saturday night against a very good Baldwin team.” Against Anderson County, Louisburg had all sorts of problems finding any offense against the Bulldog zone defense. The Wildcats didn’t score their first basket until the final minute of the first quarter and took just a 15-7 halftime lead.  Anderson County outscored Louisburg 13-5 in the third quarter and had the lead late in the contest. But O’Hara, who led the team with eight points on Friday, scored a basket to tie the game with a minute left. Junior guard Mandy Mulich stole the ball on Anderson County’s next possession and was fouled while going up for a shot. Mulich hit 1 of 2 free throws with 36 seconds left in the contest and the Wildcat defense took care of the rest. Louisburg’s Jordan Shearer came off the bench and played most of the contest and was big on defense. Shearer had two baskets and several steals in the process. “Jordan was definitely a spark of us, especially on defense,” Tinich said. “She really gave us some good minutes and played hard on both ends of the floor.” O’Hara, Frazier and Mulich all made the all-tournament team following Saturday’s games. As for Louisburg’s perfect start to the season, Tinich believes the best is yet to be seen from his team. “We’re right where we want to be,” he said. “We’re still trying to find ourselves with a rotation and substitution pattern, but we know that may not come right away. We had so many different options we looked at this past week. “We still have one more detail to take care of before break and that’s Wellsville Friday night. Then we’ll take some time to perfect some things and take a look at some different things for the rest of the season.” The Wildcats host the Eagles for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff. Louisburg 21 13 12 10 — 56 Baldwin 11 10 7 10 — 38 Louisburg (4-0): Abbey Frazier 8 1-1 17, Katelynn O’Hara 6 4-6 16, Mandy Mulich 2 2-2 8, Marisa Mackey 2 0-0 4, Lindsay Stacks 1 1-2 3, Laurissa Beckman 1 0-2 3, Jordan Shearer 1 0-3 2, Genna Stambaugh 0 2-2 2, Taylor Brown 0 1-2 1. Totals: 21 11-20 56. 3-point field goals: 3, (Mulich 2, Beckman) Louisburg 4 11 5 11 — 31 Anderson Co. 3 4 13 10 — 30 Louisburg: Katelynn O’Hara 4 0-2 8, Lindsay Stacks 2 1-2, 5, Abbey Frazier 2 1-2 5, Jordan Shearer 2 0-0 4, Marisa Mackey 1 1-1 3, Mandy Mulich 0 2-4 2, Laurissa Beckman 1 0-0 2, Taylor Brown 0 2-2 2. Totals: 12 7-13 31. 3-point field goals: none
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 926 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
