Lady Bulldogs fail to handle pressure

The Lovell Lady Bulldogs traveled to Cody on Friday to get back into the swing of competition from the holiday break.
Lovell didn’t get the fresh start they were hoping for as they fell short, 64-31, to the Fillies.
“There were spurts where we played decent basketball,” Lovell head coach Chris Edwards commented. “But we didn’t finish opportunities we had, and that gave Cody all of the momentum.”
The Cody Fillies are currently ranked second in the state in Class 4A, and their intense, physical play proved to be too much to handle for the Lady Bulldogs.
“They beat us up and down the court and came at us in swarms,” Edwards continued. “Unfortunately, that caused us to make some bad decisions with the ball.”
Lovell went into halftime only down by eight, 27-19, and had some chances throughout the first half that kept the Lady Bulldogs hopeful that a strong second half could change the outcome.
Instead, costly turnovers during the third quarter allowed the Fillies to extend their lead even further, and the Lady Bulldogs never recovered to result in the 64-31 loss.
Libby Mickelson finished the game with another double-double performance, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
“Libby played one of the best complete games I’ve seen her play all season,” Edwards said. “To have a double-double against a team like Cody is pretty impressive.”
Kenadee Rael and Kennadee Owens both ended the game with 6 points. Keyanna Walker added 5 while Summer Teter and Krysta McIntosh had 2 apiece.
This week, Coach Edwards plans to work on the team’s pressing schemes to have a higher tempo and hopefully create opponent turnovers that will translate
in easy opportunities for Lovell in transition.
The Lady Bulldogs will be competing in the Big Horn Basin Classic in Cowley this weekend. On Friday, the varsity will face off against Burlington at noon and Glenrock at 6 p.m., both in the Rocky Mountain main gym.
“These games will test us on both ends of the floor and will prepare us for our conference matches that begin the following week,” Edwards said. “We need to head into those games confident in our rotations on the court to be the strongest we can be.”
Game times on Saturday will be based on win/loss seedings from Friday’s pool play. The #3 seeds will play at 11 a.m., followed by the #1 seeds facing off for the championship at 12:30, and at 2 p.m. the #2 seeds will compete for third place.
JV team
The Lovell Lady Bulldogs junior varsity team also had their hands full with Cody and fell to the Fillies 47-22.
Lovell struggled getting into a rhythm but had a balanced contribution on offense with nine girls scoring in the contest.
Kaydree Owens, Lauryn Marchant, Jenna Hessenthaler and Brooklin Clark each scored 3 points for Lovell.
Kindle Collins, Angela Lopez, CeCe Collins, Hannity Felkins and Becca Nichols each added 2 points.
At the Big Horn Classic in Cowley on Friday, the Lovell JV will play Burlington at 10:30 a.m. in the main gym and will then play Glenrock at 4:30 p.m. in the auxiliary gym.
The third-place seeds from Friday’s pool play games will face off at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday in the main gym. The #1 seeds play for the JV championship at 11 a.m. in the auxiliary gym, followed by the #2 seeds at 12:30.