Lady Bulldogs back on track

The Lovell Lady Bulldogs hosted the Thermopolis Lady Bobcats in a conference match on Friday night in Johnny Winterholler Gymnasium.
Prior to the game, all of the winter sports programs’ seniors were recognized for senior night.
Senior members of the girls basketball team honored were Summer Teter, Krysta McIntosh, Keyanna Walker, Madison Wolvington and manager Paige Thomas.
Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, the evening’s fun festivities were short-lived when the Lady Bobcats came out on top, 34-32, in the contest.
Slow starts to games aren’t uncommon for the Lady Bulldogs this season, but the shots rarely reached the bottom of the net on Friday night against Thermopolis.
“Friday night was a challenge,” head coach Chris Edwards said. “We had plenty of opportunities but failed to execute or score to gain any sort of rhythm or momentum.”
The Lady Bobcats were up 7-5 after the first quarter, but the Lady Bulldogs responded to take a narrow 14-13 lead into halftime.
Any chance Lovell had to extend an advantage resulted in many failed attempts that gave Thermopolis hope and fueled their momentum.
“Thermopolis made the necessary plays down the stretch to win,” Edwards continued. “We failed to make disciplined decisions with the ball and didn’t finish to put enough points on the board.”
The Lady Bulldogs only made seven field goals in the contest and were 16 of 36 from the free throw line.
Free throws were an obvious issue against Thermopolis, but on the season, the Lady Bulldogs are shooting close to 60 percent from the charity stripe.
“Looking back, it was a game full of ‘would of, could of, should of’ scenarios, but it just wasn’t our night,” said Edwards. “It’s hard to win a close game if you can’t make free throws.”
Libby Mickelson recorded a double-double performance, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, and she led the team with three assists.
Teter finished with 6 points while both Kenadee Rael and Breeah Jones had 5 points each.
Freshman Celeste Lindsay came off the bench and went 3 for 4 from the line to add 3 points for the Lady Bulldogs.
Kennadee Owens finished with 2 points and Wolvington 1.
Knowing the team would have to make a quick turnaround to bounce back the following evening in Worland, Coach Edwards reinforced his confidence to the girls and instructed them not to dwell too long on the loss.
“Tomorrow is a new day, and we can’t let that one game define us or our season,” he said. “That outcome has nothing to do with the outcome in Worland.”
Edwards was right.
On Saturday afternoon, the team traveled to Worland to face the Lady Warriors for the third time this year and in another key conference game.
In both previous meetings, the two teams appeared to be evenly matched in strengths, but the Lady Bulldogs prevailed in a 51-40 win.
“We knew we would need to handle their physical style of play and combat it with our ability to play with tempo,” Edwards said. “We also knew we were going to need to shoot well on their home court, which we did early, and that gave us some of the confidence we needed.”
Rael had a major impact on that momentum, scoring eight of the team’s 11 points in the first quarter.
Things were close throughout the first half with the Lady Bulldogs on top 24-18.
Then in the third, it was Raegan May who stabilized the offense, scoring 8 points of her own of the team’s 16-point quarter.
Lovell got up to as many as 12 points, 40-28, in the second half before Worland clawed their way back to 44-40.
Unlike the night before, the Lady Bulldogs knocked down 7 of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal the key conference win for Lovell.
“This was the boost we needed to show the girls we can score, which has been our Achilles heel these last few weekends,” Edwards said.
Rael and May both had 13 points each to lead the Lady Bulldogs scoring against Worland. Mickelson had 8, Owens 6, Teter 5, Jones 3 and Wolvington 3.
Looking ahead
This weekend, the Lady Bulldogs will host Mountain View Friday and Lyman Saturday.
“These are two teams that beat us earlier in the season, but we know we will be facing one of them, if not both, at Regionals,” Edwards said. “These games don’t count toward seedings, but they’ll make a huge mental impact on the teams, one way or another, depending on their outcomes. We will need to beat one of them to make it to State.”
The Lady Bulldogs junior varsity squad will tip-off against Mountain View at 4 p.m. on Friday with varsity following at 5:30 p.m.
On Saturday morning, the Lovell JV girls will begin at 9 a.m. against Lyman, and the varsity will start at 10:30 a.m.
JV games
The Lady Bulldogs junior varsity beat Thermopolis 43-39 on Friday.
Lindsay led the offense with 11 points. Becca Nichols finished with 8, Brooklin Clark 6, and both Kandace Asay and Kaydree Owens had 5.
Kindle Collins, Kira Collins and Hannity Felkins all had 2 points while Jenna Hessenthaler and Lauryn Marchant had 1 apiece.
On Saturday, the JV girls lost to Worland, 53-32.
Kindle Collins and Hessenthaler both led the way with 6 points in the game. Lindsay and Owens both added 5.
Felkins also managed 4 points, and Asay, Clark and Nichols finished with 2 each.