The Smyer Lady Cats hosted the Sundown Roughettes for a district basketball matchup this past Friday night, resulting in the Roughettes beating the Lady Cats, 50-40.
It was an extremely physical basketball game between the district foes, and it was a tight matchup until the Roughettes outscored the Lady Cats 22-13 in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
The win improves the Roughettes to 15-9 overall and 2-1 in district play, and it marks their fourth consecutive victory, while the loss drops the Lady Cats to 15-5 overall and 1-1 in district play.
Following the Roughettes win, their Head Coach Jared Neighbors shared his thoughts on the game.
“We have had a great week of basketball capped off with a big district win against a very good Smyer team. The girls fought well and finished the game with the control and composure we knew we had,” Coach Neighbors said. “I was very pleased with how the girls handled physicality and attacked, and found the best shot available, especially at the end of the game to pull away.”
The Roughettes were led by Camry Jourden in the win, who scored 18 points on 54% shooting, adding four assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Other standouts included Kathryn Flores with 14 points powered by three three-pointers, adding two assists, two rebounds and two steals, Kyndal Taggart with 11 points, 18 rebounds, four steals and an assist, and Kelbie Powell with four points, seven rebounds, two blocks, a steal and an assist.
On the Lady Cats side of things, leading scorers included Rylee Riedel with 14 points and Ellie Nelson with 11 points.
While the loss wasn’t what they wanted, Lady Cats Head Basketball Coach Todd Nichols still had an optimistic outlook coming out of the matchup.
“It was a tough fought game with two very physical and competitive teams. Sundown made big plays down the stretch that made the difference,” Coach Nichols said. “I’m proud of how our girls fought and look forward to playing them again in a few weeks.”
Following the game, both teams are back in action early in the week for district matchups and then will be right back at it again on Friday.
On Friday, the Lady Cats will be hosting Whiteface at 6:15 p.m., while the Roughettes will be traveling to play at Lovington at 7:15 p.m.