Lady Cats take down Eagles after Viking defeat

SUPERIOR – In two home games last weekend, the Lady Bobcats faced a close defeat by Charlo, before coming back for a powerful victory against Two Eagle.

Thursday’s game against Charlo was close and the girls only lost by five points. The final score of the game was 42-47.

According to Head Coach Jeff Schultz, the Lady Bobcats had the lead at the start of the second half. He said the girls played well, but mentally buckled and let the Lady Vikings come back.

“[It was] unfortunate because of how well we had been playing,” said Schultz.

The sudden drop in the game was attributed to mental strength. Schultz said the Lady Bobcats doubted themselves and lost faith in their game partway through the third quarter. Even though two and a half quarters had gone well, some question of the team’s abilities came to them.

However, Schultz was pleased overall and said the team had learned from past games with obvious improvements. He said these improvements were the important thing and the team’s focus was on the end of the season.

“We’ve got some growing and some learning to do [to prepare for future games],” said Schultz. “The focus point is [to] believe in ourselves, believe in each other, believe in our abilities.”

The game against Two Eagle, Saturday January 11, saw a revitalized team come back and take the game with a 28-point lead. The final score of Saturday’s game was 58-30.

Schultz said this was a good game and Two Eagle had a strong team, with better players and skills than past years. He recalled how the whole team got out on the court and everyone scored points. The girls constantly looked for opportunities to pass the ball to a teammate.

“It’s good to see all the girls participating and contributing,” said Schultz.

For both games, the coach felt junior Hannah Hollenback excelled. He recalled how she had great plays in the game against Charlo and had become a major contributor to the team.

Schultz also felt Hollenback, senior Anesa Ruiz and sophomore Merissa Koke had stepped up their game with strong plays. Senior Geneva Plakke was also mentioned for having done a great job. All four girls received the coach’s praise and he said they had begun to shine in the basketball games.

The coach felt there had been a great deal of improvement this week. He said this was more important to him than wins or losses and it helped with preparations for the tournaments at the end of the year. Schultz said the regular season was a test of how prepared teams were for the finals.

“When we take our test, every time we have a game, I feel we are getting better,” said Schultz.

However, more improvements can never hurt. In the days between games, Schultz will work with the team on offense, rebounds and scoring shots. He said there were plenty of areas to improve on and hoped they would be able to do it.

The Lady Bobcats played an away game against St. Regis Tuesday. No information on the outcome of the game was available at the time of press.

Before the St. Regis game, Schultz felt it would be a big one. Aside from the county rivalry between the teams, he felt the Lady Tigers were a talented team with good players. He looked forward to the game and hoped his team would be ready to go up against them.

The Superior girl’s next game will be a home game against Noxon on Friday, January 17, at 7 p.m.