De Soto’s fast start sinks Louisburg

By Andy Brown
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Updated: January 19, 2016

Louisburg senior Megan Lemke fights a De Soto player for a loose ball Friday during the Lady Cats’ 50-29 loss against De Soto. Lemke led Louisburg with 12 points on the night.

DE SOTO – The Louisburg girls basketball team was a little short-handed during Friday’s contest in De Soto.

The Lady Cats had just 13 players suited up for both the varsity and junior varsity games due to injury or prior commitments. It wasn’t an ideal situation going up against a bigger De Soto squad that can score from all over the floor.

Lack of depth wasn’t the only reason, but Louisburg couldn’t keep up with De Soto in a 50-29 loss. De Soto used its size inside to build a 33-14 halftime lead and it never looked back.

“De Soto has some nice players and they have some big girls,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “Size hurt us early, and add that size to the fact that they have some shooters too, it is a tough group to face.”

Louisburg did get one player back from injury as junior Paige Buffington worked her way back from a sore ankle to start as the team’s point guard. Buffington finished with 11 points and played a majority of the minutes.

“Paige is so unselfish,” Lowry said. “She is hurting right now. She is better, but she is not 100 percent. She is the heart of our team and it was evident on the first day of practice when she wasn’t there. She is that glue for us and when she is not there you can tell.

“She is that kid they look to settle things down. I trust her and she did a nice job. Hopefully she will be able to continue that the rest of the season.”

Louisburg’s Emalee Overbay (left) and Carson Buffington go up for a rebound Friday in De Soto.

De Soto jumped on Louisburg early as it went on a 15-0 run to start the game, but the Lady Cats were able to settle down some thanks to Megan Lemke. The Louisburg senior scored six of her team-high 12 points in the final two minutes of the first quarter to cut the De Soto lead to 20-7.

“I will say this after every game, but our kids give so much and are so tough,” Lowry said. “They are very unselfish. You have a kid like Megan Lemke who tries to get her team going by driving to the basket and if she missed the shot, she is the first back on the other end. You could tell she was just so exhausted, but she busted her tail. We are going to keep working hard to get better as a team.”

Although she didn’t score, freshman Carson Buffington did a lot of her work on the defensive end. Carson led Louisburg with nine rebounds on the night, including three steals. Junior Emalee Overbay also had three steals in the loss.

Louisburg returns to action Wednesday when it travels to Spring Hill. The Lady Cats will take part in the Wellsville Top Gun Tournament next week.

LOUISBURG 7 7 8 7 – 29

DE SOTO 20 13 11 6 – 50

LOUISBURG (1-8): Megan Lemke 4-11 2-5 12; Paige Buffington 2-6 6-8 11; Julianne Finley 1-1 0-0 2; Emalee Overbay 1-7 0-0 2; Madisen Simpson 0-4 1-2 1; Bailey Kern 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 8-41 10-17 29. 3-point field goals: 3, (Lemke 2, P. Buffington)