Seventh grade girls split with Riverton and Lander

This week the Lovell seventh-grade girls A team played in a basketball quad in Worland Saturday.

In the first game against Riverton, Lovell won 27-14. The Lady Bulldogs had a dominant first half, going into the break with a 19-8 lead. After the half they continued right where they left off. Gemma Walker led the Bulldogs with 10 points, and Nicholls added 6, Guccion 5, Emily Sanders 4 and Olivia Rael 2.

In the second game of the day, Lovell played Lander, losing a close contest by a score of 20-17.

“I was very impressed with how the girls handled themselves with the adversary and how they didn’t give up, even when things looked impossible,” coach Collin McArthur said. “They also didn’t get down on each other when things didn’t go our way and stayed positive.” 

After the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs were down 5-4 and keeping the game close, but Lander created some separation, going into the half up 10-6. The Lady Bulldogs outscored Lander 11 -10 in the second half, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit. Walker and Sanders led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with 6 points each. Nellie Guccion added 3 points, Kylie Nicholls 2.

The seventh-grade girls B team played at a jamboree in Powell. They played Powell in the first game, winning 24-17. It was a four-point game going into the half, but the Lady Bulldogs came out in the third quarter and outscored the panthers 14 – 7, creating a deficit the Panthers could not overcome. Paige Asay led the scoring with 8, followed by both Addison Leonhardt and Walker with 6. McKynna Mayes had 5, Guccion, Rael, and Chloe Asay all had 2 and Sanders rounded out the scoring with 1.

The B team then played Cody in their second game, winning 25-14. The Lady Bulldogs had a strong first quarter, jumping out to a 10-0 lead that they never gave up.  Mayes led the scoring with 7 points, Leonhardt had 5, Sanders had 3 and Guccion, Catherine Zollman and Asay all added 2.

With their next game being their last, McArthur said, “The girls have made a lot of improvements over the course of six weeks. We couldn’t be prouder of the way they have played and the effort that they are putting into practice and the games. Their character and coachability is one to be desired, and we will be sad to see the season come to an end here this week. The girls’ defense has really improved, and they are holding teams to a lot lower scoring then what we did to start the season.

“The girls will get one more opportunity this weekend to go beat some teams that we weren’t able to get during the regular season, and we hope to see them pull out some good wins.”

Lovell will travel to Worland for the Yellowstone Conference Tournament on Saturday, meeting Riverton at 9 a.m.