Lady Panthers fight for a win against Bobcats

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

A high-scoring first half led the Alberton Lady Panthers to victory against the Superior Lady Bobcats in a game in Alberton Thursday evening.

“We had some good scoring throughout the bench,” said Lady Panthers Head Coach Erik Johnson.

The game started off with the Lady Panthers taking a strong 15 – 10 lead in the first quarter, a point gain that was helped out greatly by the seven out of 10 free throws dropped by the Lady Panthers.

“We just couldn’t keep our hands to ourselves,” said Lady Bobcats Head Coach Jeff Schultz about the Superior team’s high fouling game.

Lady Panthers Dani Hanley, Jenna Rausch, Nettie O’Rourke, Lyndi Ishler and Shauna Hendrickson all scored during the first quarter.

Lady Bobcats Jessica Yarnall, Jessica Taylor and Kaitlin Koke scored during the first quarter.

During the second quarter the Lady Panthers used some tough offense to take charge of the game, outscoring the Lady Bobcats 15 – 2 for a 30 – 12 lead at the half.

Hanley, Rausch, O’Rourke, Ishler and Hendrickson all scored for the Lady Panthers during the second quarter.

Yarnall dropped two free throws during for the only points the Lady Bobcats would post during the second quarter.

After the half the Lady Bobcats came into the game revitalized, outscoring the Lady Panthers 8 – 5 in the third quarter with points from Yarnall and Koke.

Lady Panthers Rausch and O’Rourke scored during the third quarter.

The Lady Panthers came in strong again in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lady Bobcats 14 – 11 with points from Kayla Webb, Hanley, Rausch, O’Rourke, Ishler and Hendrickson.

Shannon Frederick, Koltan Plouffe, Ashley Blaylock and Taylor each scored for the lady Bobcats in the fourth quarter.

Rausch and Ishler led the Lady Panthers with 12 and 11 pionts in the game, while Yarnall and Taylor led the Bobcats in scoring with 10 and 7 points.

Schultz said that the Lady Bobcats had a hard time playing up to their potential Thursday evening, and much of it had to do with the Lady Panther’s hard to predict defensive tactics.

“Alberton did a really great job of taking us out of our game. They were switching up their defense on us which really ended up throwing us off. That’s just good coaching on Erik’s part.” Schultz said.

The Lady Panthers also got 14 points on the free throw line and while Johnson said that their free throw percentage was not the greatest, the Lady Panthers only made 14 out of 30 fouls shots that evening, the points gained from free throws put an undeniable hurt on the Lady Bobcats.

“That’s our Achilles Heel. We got lots of talent, we’ve got lots of skill and we’ve got a lot of great girls but we foul constantly.” Schultz said.

Johnson said that the Lady Panthers had also focused on ball control and keeping their turnover rate down for Thursday evening.

“We wanted to turn the ball over less than the first time we played them so I guess our emphasis was on ball control,” Johnson said. “We had a lot fewer turnovers this game than we did the last time we played them so I bet that had an impact on the game.”

Schultz said that the Lady Bobcats could definitely have played a stronger game, but noted that the Lady Panthers played strong all night Thursday.

“They definitely wanted to win and from the very beginning we looked like we were confused and a little bit lost out there; we just needed somebody on the team to bring it,” Schultz said.