Lady Mustangs split opening games

The Lovell Middle School Lady Mustangs started their season on Monday, battling against Powell.

The eighth grade A team started off well, trailing by four at halftime but eventually finished with a 34-20 loss.

“I was happy overall,” coach Josey Allen said. “We played Powell, and they’re a really tough team dominating with this group of athletes in past seasons. But we were super competitive. We frustrated Powell on defense, and we were aggressive on offense.

“It was a fairly close game. It got away from us a little bit in the second half, but I was pretty pleased with the effort, the commitment and the willingness of the girls to try and do the things we have been working on in practice -- working on being attack minded, especially on offense.”

The B team came out victorious against Powell. In the first half the girls worked hard to gain a one-point lead. Fighting to the end of the game, the girls came to win, finishing the game up 13-12.

“It was a close, competitive game,” Allen said. “It was really fun to see some girls have some success and have some first experiences like making their first shots ever in a middle school basketball game. They were feeling really good about that. I saw the same idea of girls willing to be aggressive on offense and to be attack minded.

“Those were all good things we worked on and I saw on the court.”

Seventh grade

The seventh grade teams had good results, as well, playing at home Monday.

The A team fell to Powell 35-20.

“With the girls’ first game, the biggest thing was that they came out super hard,” coach Collin McArthur said. “They played really well that first half --  we actually had the lead -- especially for not having practiced press or press breaker. They did a great job going out and playing with heart.

“In the second half they did a great job, as well. The only problem we had was the press, so for our girls the biggest thing we are going to work on is overcoming the press, how to get through it and setting up ourselves so we can actually put more pressure on the ball. But overall, a great first game.”

The B team came out victorious 38-26.

Lovell will meet Thermopolis today (Thursday) at 4:15 p.m. with the eighth grade game in Thermop and the seventh grade contest in Lovell. Likewise, the Lady Mustangs play Worland Tuesday, with the seventh grade game in Lovell and the eighth grade contest in Worland.

On Thursday, Nov. 9, the Lady Mustangs will play at Rocky Mountain at 4:15 p.m.