The Ropes Lady Eagles hosted the Sundown Roughettes for a district basketball matchup this past Tuesday night, resulting in the Roughettes earning a 4543 road victory.
This matchup marked the third one between these teams this season, and the previous two were decided by single digits, so the thriller of a game doesn’t come as a surprise.
The Roughettes lost in the first two matchups, so it was a momentous win, that improved them to 19-11 overall and 6-2 in district play, which ties them for second in the 2A District 5 standings.
“Big win last night; the girls played their hearts out like they always do,” Roughettes Head Basketball Coach Jared Neighbors said. “It was a great high school basketball game all around. The best thing about this team is their unselfishness. They understand their roles and they play to win, play together and play for Him.”
As Coach Neighbors alluded to, any girl can lead them at any given moment, and against the Lady Eagles, it was Kelbie Powell.
Powell recorded a doubledouble in the game, scoring 23 points on 47% shooting from the field and 9/10 free throw shooting, adding 15 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
Other standouts for the Roughettes included Camry Jourden with 12 points behind two three-pointers made, adding two assists, two steals and a rebound, and Avyian McGlasson with six points, three rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist.
On the Lady Eagles side of things, the loss drops them to 18-9 overall and 6-2 in district play, which ties them for second in the 2A District 5 standings.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed that we lost as this was an important game looking ahead to seeding for playoffs,” Lady Eagles Head Basketball Coach Marianne Wolfe said. “It’s so hard to beat a team three times in a season, especially in a rivalry, and all three matchups have been hard fought games that were decided in the fourth quarter; you can’t ask for more fun basketball than that. I felt like Sundown did a great job keeping us out of any offensive rhythm and taking away our inside game; lots of credit to them. Any easy opportunities we had to score had to come off our press defense. Rylie Lester and Brooklyn Hogg do an excellent job running the point of that and disrupting ball advancement. There is still a lot of basketball left; we need to take care of business for the remainder of district and continue to fight to get that D1 top seed.”
What makes the loss tough is that the top seeded Whiteface Lady Lopes remain undefeated, and now with two district losses, the climb to the top of the district becomes that much harder.
And though the result is disappointing, there were still positives to takeaway, including the performances by Lester and Hogg, which Coach Wolfe mentioned.
Lester scored 19 points behind a 6/6 effort from the free throw line and Hogg scored 13 points behind a 4/6 effort from the free throw line. Other scorers included Ella Lehnen with three points, and Kamdyn Matus, Sydney Brooks, Zailyn Wylie and Annabelle Falls all with two points.
Following the game, both teams continue district play early in the week as the Roughettes host Smyer and the Lady Eagles travel to Morton.