The #5 ranked Whiteface Lady Lopes hosted the Smyer Lady Cats for a district basketball matchup, resulting in the Lady Lopes winning 69-33.
As a team, the Lady Lopes bested the Lady Cats 39% to 30% in field goal shooting, 30% to 21% in three-point shooting, 63% to 33% in free throw shooting, 15-10 in assists, 16-5 in steals and they also won the turnover margin by 22. The Lady Cats won the rebound column, 35-32.
Individual standouts for the Lady Lopes included Kambry Sanders with 20 points behind four threepointers made, adding eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, Emily Blankenship with 19 points behind four three-pointers made and ¾ free throws made, adding seven steals, four assists and three rebounds, and Lainey Sanders with 11 points, six assists, two rebounds and two steals.
Other Lady Lopes stat lines included Abi Soliz with nine points, six rebounds, a steal and a block, Gracyn Kauffman with six points, one rebound and one steal, and Keyarah Castaneda with four points, five rebounds, a steal and a block.
The win marks the Lady Lopes’ 25th straight, improving them to 29-2 overall and 10-0 in district play, which has them as the standalone leader in the 2A District 5 standings.
On the Lady Cats side of things, the loss drops them to 19-9 overall and 5-5 in district play, which puts them fourth in the 2A District 5 standings.
Scorers for the Lady Cats included Kira Posadas, Ellie Nelson and Kaia Brandon all with seven points, Rylee Riedel with six points behind two three-pointers made, Jada Hernandez with four points and Vannah Jourden with two points.
The stats and the loss may not jump off the sheet, but Lady Cats Head Basketball Coach Todd Nichols was encouraged by his team’s performance.
“I thought we did some good things against a really good team,” Coach Nichols said. “We showed that we can compete with them well.”
Both teams are back in action over the weekend as the Lady Cats host Seagraves, and the Lady Lopes travel to Plains. That will be each team’s penultimate district game before they both wrap up district play on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the Lady Cats play at Ropes at 6:15 p.m. and the Lady Lopes host Sundown at 6:15 p.m.