Lady Cat basketball excels at Gonzaga camp

Superior Lady Bobcat Head Coach Jeff Schultz rarely schedules summer league games against divisional opponents - choosing instead to focus on larger schools in order to show his squad the best competition from the state and beyond.

The three and a half day camp in Spokane at Gonzaga University is a prime example of the focus on facing tough competition from larger schools. With two games remaining in the camp, the Lady Cats have gone 5-2 in the large school junior varsity division – facing off against schools from Washington, Idaho and Montana that average well over 1,000 students.

“We have come so far this week, I don’t think we could have done this at any other tourney,” Coach Schultz said. “This whole summer our team has come so far that it is truly unreal.”

In the first game of the Gonzaga Tournament, Superior faced off against the junior varsity squad from Camas – a school with 1,400 students.

In typical Lady Cat fashion, Superior harnessed their tough defense to generate plenty of fast break opportunities for a 40-21 win.

“We even had some of our outside shots drop,” Coach Schultz said. “Geneva Plakke had two by herself.”

The success of the outside shooting in the game against Camas was a big example of how Coach Schultz said the team is improving this summer – he has been letting them take shots, even rush some, in the hopes that the shooters will come out and they have.

In the second game of the tournament Superior went up against Sunnyside, a Washington school with 1,500 students.

Coach Schultz saw that the Lady Cats had a size advantage on the inside and utilized it to his advantage throughout the game.

“We hit Marissa Koke over and over again,” Coach Schultz said.

The inside advantage was enough for Superior to walk away with a 33-28 victory over Sunnyside and in their next game they saw their first competition from Montana in Great Falls – a Class AA school with 1,200 students.

“Jordan Mueller really came out of her shell as a scorer in this game she was on fire a lot,” Coach Schultz said. “We were down at the end of the game and Jordan scored the last seven points to win the game.”

Mueller’s fire at the end of the game propelled Superior to a close 33-32 victory over Great Falls.

In one of the only hiccups of the tournament, Superior played Liberty, a school from Seattle, and Coach Schultz said a lack of blocking out and focus resulted in their first loss of the tournament (18-14).

“The crazy thing was we were up 12-2 at half and just ran out of steam,” Coach Schultz said.

A night of rest did wonders for the Lady Cats and the next morning they came out gunning for Monroe – a school with 1,300 students.

“They played some of the best man-to-man defense I have seen period,” Coach Schultz said. “The girls did not crumble or back down.”

Coach Schultz mentioned the efforts of Hannah Hollenback in the game, who started things out for Superior with two quick fast break buckets along with a few blocks “for good measure.”

“They were possibly the best team in the pool and we beat them 29-28,” Coach Schultz said.

In the next game of the day the Lady Cats went up against a tall Billings Central squad that took advantage of their height to overpower Superior on the inside. Even though the girls struggled inside, Coach Schultz mentioned the efforts of Anesa Ruiz, who “battled on the boards and had a lot of blocks.”

“Celein Parkin, who is a freshman, came in and played some huge minutes as well,” Coach Schultz said. “She hit a three and drove hard to get to the foul line and converted two of them.”

Superior lost the game 23-15 but came back big against Bozeman in their next game.

Coach Schultz said that although Bozeman was another tall team his squad came out and battled for a 24-22 victory.

“Danielle “Bubba” Ewoniuk, who hustles non-stop the whole time came out and hit multiple big shots for the team and really led the charge in the game,” Coach Schultz said.

On Tuesday the girls finished up the Gonzaga Tournament with two more games and for Coach Schultz the overall performance is an unexpected surprise.

“I thought that after we lost those three amazing seniors this year was going to be a lot of building and that it might be a bit of a learning year,” Coach Schultz said. “They have learned so fast this summer that I really think this team will have a chance to compete in the load conference with Arlee, St. Regis and Charlo. They have worked really hard and the really good news is that we are only half way through the summer and can continue to improve.”