Lovell Middle School girls cagers show improvement during busy week

The Mustang girls basketball teams worked hard for some wins this past week. Overall, both teams have improved over the last three games, playing against Thermopolis, Rocky Mountain and Worland.
The eighth-grade teams fared well against the Thermopolis Bobcats Thursday, each team finishing on top in Thermopolis. The A team won 30-24, and the B team won, too, 24-17.
“We came out and played a great first half,” coach Josey Allen said. “We attacked on offense and defense. The second half was much more difficult. We missed shots and made errors. Thermopolis made tough shots.
It ended up being a close win and a good chance to learn how to handle frustration.”
Playing against the Lady Grizz at Rocky Monday, the eighth-grade Mustangs came out victorious once again, 25-9.
“We were better mentally against Rocky on Monday and made life difficult for them,” Allen noted. “We are inconsistent in our commitment to get the ball in the paint, but we hit some perimeter shots and did better on the offensive glass, getting some put-backs.”
Heading over to Worland Tuesday, the Mustangs put up a fight. The A team won 30-22, and the B team lost.
Seventh grade
The seventh-grade Mustangs had mixed results this week. Against Thermopolis at home Thursday, the Lady Mustangs fell 23-13 in the A game while the B team won 21-8. Coach Collin McArthur noted, “In the Thermop game we did a lot better job on defense. We just had to work on running on offense and staying strong with it. This week what we are going to work on is simply running on offense and going through it even if we’re not getting a quick score.
“We want to run through it and make the defense have to work. But overall, we had good effort. We just needed a little faster start and to put both offense and defense together.”
By the Rocky game they had done just that, winning 47-12. Coach McArthur and assistant coach Tiffany Scheeler expressed their excitement of the team coming together and having both strong offense and defense. The things they needed to improve on from the last two games have all come together.
Their home contest against the Lady Braves of Worland Tuesday showed just how much improvement they can make. The A team finished the game with a 60-14 win, while the B team produced a 16-14 win.
The Lady Mustangs have the weekend off but will play Powell Monday at 4:15 p.m., with the seventh grade in Powell and the eighth grade in Lovell. Tuesday, the
eighth graders host Thermopolis while the seventh-grade squad travels to Thermop. The games tip off at 4:15 p.m.