Lady Cats persevere against Arlee Warriors

The Lady Bobcats came out strong against Arlee on Saturday, January 2, when they faced off against the Warriors on their home court. The Lady Bobcats quickly scored 12 points to Arlee’s 9 in the first quarter for an early lead. But in the second quarter, the Bobcats seemed to lose their advantage.

“We were fouling quite regularly and we weren’t doing a great job at blocking,” Coach Jeff Schultz said of the second quarter. “We weren’t playing with our feet and we were reaching with our hands. We turned over the ball and didn’t play well on the offensive side and only scored 4 points to their 8.”

Coming back into the game at halftime, the Bobcats had 16 points, while Arlee had a slight advantage with 17 points. Knowing that they had fumbled in the second quarter, the Lady Bobcats knew that they had to clean up their act, and fast, to hold Arlee off.

“The girls came out a lot more energetic in the second half,” Schultz said. “We forced some turnovers and scored some easy layups, which really helped. Our shooting percentage was bad in the first half, but improved as we moved through the second half.”

During the third quarter, with 4:07 on the clock, the Lady Bobcats had outscored the Arlee Warriors 24 to 20. The lead was still slight though, but the girls began to put the pressure on and closed the basket off from the Warriors. At the end of the third quarter, the Bobcats had stolen the lead by 12 points, 34 to 22. Coming into the fourth quarter, the Lady Bobcats made the first basket adding another two points to their total.

Foul trouble began to ensue again, but after a quick timeout, the girls had it under control again. Arlee put the pressure on scoring a couple of baskets, but the Lady Bobcats returned to score even more points. With 4:04 on the clock, the Lady Bobcats scored a couple free throws, bringing their score to 38. The Warriors managed to score some free throws bringing their total to 30 points. That would be it for them.

The last three minutes of the game belonged to the Bobcats. With two minutes to go, the Arlee Warriors tried to fight viciously, but the girls weren’t fazed. They had 40 points, but with two minutes still on the clock, the girls didn’t let the time go to waste. They scored six more points to win 46 to 30 starting the New Year off with a sweet victory.

Players Kaitlynn Koke and Tamara Rennick led the night with 11 points each and Jessica Yarnell scored 10 points. To make things even better, Yarnell was back in her first game since breaking a knuckle and it was also her birthday. Rennick led with 13 rebounds, Koke had 8 and Jessica Taylor had seven.

The Bobcats will play against Valley Christian on January 7 in Superior and then travel to Deer Lodge on Saturday, January 8.