Lady Bocats top Eagles
Cary Chamberlain makes a layup despite the presence of two Valley Christian defenders in a game last week.
The Superior Lady Cats battled the Valley Christian Eagles at home on Thursday night and traveled to play Deer Lodge on Saturday.
It was a tense game for both teams on Thursday night. Superior jumped out to an early lead 17-13 in the first quarter. Both teams scored 16 points in the second quarter and the Lady Cats went into halftime with a narrow lead, 31-29.
In the fourth quarter, the Eagles rallied, but the Lady Cats with stood the Eagles’ takeover attempt and won by nine, 71-62.
Coach Jeff Schultz said that he felt the girls played a great game of team basketball. He said that though Valley is a taller team, the girls did a great job handling them.
“The girls did a great job blocking out and rebounding,” Schultz said. “They also did a great job defensively. Valley scored a lot of points and most of them came in the fourth quarter.”
The girls had lost to Valley earlier in the season and Schultz said that the team really wanted to win this game.
“And they did an outstanding job,” Schultz said. “We didn’t have a lot of subs so they couldn’t foul out.”
Several players were in the double digits. Kelsey Stenberg and Cary Chamberlain each scored 17, Nicole Stroot tallied 16 and Ashley Blaylock tossed in 13 points. Schultz said that this just shows they were playing a great team game.
From there, it was on to Deer Lodge. Superior started out with a strong first quarter. The girls grabbed an early lead, 18-14.
“They came out playing just like they did against Valley,” Schultz said. “They were explosive and fast.”
Schultz said that foul trouble quickly became an issue.
“We started fouling so fast I was scared,” Schultz said. “And that’s what really hurt us.”
Deer Lodge, a fairly deep team, was able to keep fresh players on the court, which eventually wore down the Lady Cats.
The Wardens pulled away during the second quarter with a 24-11 run on the Lady Cats.
The girls tried to make a comeback in the second half of the game, but the Wardens maintained their lead.
Malinda Steinebach scored 21 points for the Lady Cats.
“She did a really excellent job of scoring for us,” Schultz said. “Their coach was yelling to make sure a girl had her hand in Malinda’s face. There was a girl standing on the three point line and Malinda was about three feet behind the arc and she hit (the shot.)”
This week, the girls will have one game against Loyola at home on Thursday night and then they will look toward districts.
“Loyola is tall and lengthy,” Schultz said. “We’re going to have to get after them and cause some havoc with our speed. We need to keep it as fast paced as we can and not slow like they would want.”
Schultz said he’s pretty sure they will be playing Valley during their first district game.
“We’re going to have to bring our best game,” Schultz said.