Lady Cats fall to Eudora in home contest

Louisburg’s (from left) Brooklyn Diederich, Haley Cain and Madilyn Melton try and trap a Eudora player for a steal Tuesday in Louisburg.

The last time the Louisburg girls
basketball team squared off with Eudora, the Lady Cats walked off the court
after a 23-point loss.

It was a different game Tuesday
when Louisburg hosted Eudora in its first of four straight home contests. The Lady
Cats trailed by just six points early in the fourth quarter and were within
striking distance of the No. 9-ranked team in the state.

Instead, foul trouble and
turnovers hampered the Lady Cats in their comeback effort as they fell 49-39
and are now 7-10 on the season.

“We have to find ways to finish plays,”
Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “Defensively we are doing a good job, but we
are killing ourselves right now with turnovers, not finishing and those are
things that are on us. No one is doing that stuff to us, we are doing it to
ourselves.

“The good things is, those are
things we can fix, but it just about the focus and discipline to be able to do
it. This group wants to do the right thing, but it is just understanding and
getting execution part right.”

Louisburg trailed just 13-12 after
a back-and-forth first quarter and was down 24-19 despite seniors Carson
Buffington and Kennia Hankinson picking up three fouls. Buffington would go on
to pick up her fourth in the third quarter and the Lady Cats managed just five
points in the third.

The Lady Cats committed 24 turnovers against the Eudora zone defense and also sent the Cardinals to the free-throw line 30 times as they converted 19 of them. Louisburg made it to the line just seven times.

Eudora’s Riley Hiebert caused
Louisburg problems all night as she finished with a game-high 22 points. Harper
Schreiner added 13 and Reagan Hiebert added 11 in the win. The three Eudora
players combined for 46 of the team’s 49 points.

“We did a fairly good job at times
against the zone,” Lowry said. “Eudora has some nice players that present some
issues, in particular with their outside shooting. We didn’t contain on the drive
very well and that is some things we need to clean up on. Part of it was we did
some different defensive stuff with a 3-2, but we just got together (Tuesday) after
having no practices or school for a while, but we have to be ready either way.”

Louisburg sophomore Madilyn Melton
led Louisburg in scoring with 14 points and also had a team-high eight rebounds
in the loss. Hankinson also finished in double figures with 11 and junior Haley
Cain added seven.

Sophomore Alyse Moore and
Buffington each ended the game with six rebounds and Buffington also had a
team-high six assists.

The Lady Cats will try and get
back on track tonight when it hosts Bonner Springs. The game was originally
scheduled for Friday, but was moved up to due inclement weather. Tipoff is set
for 6 p.m.

“It is not necessarily about wins
or losses, but we need to have three good games going into postseason play,”
Lowry said. “We are going to hammer on that. It is all about how we want to
finish. How do the seniors want to finish this journey? How do their teammates
want to finish this ride together? It has to be the work we do in practice and
having a high intensity level in games.”

LOU               12           7             5             15 – 39

EUD               13           11           9             16 – 49

LOUISBURG (7-10): Madilyn Melton
6-13 2-2 14; Kennia Hankinson 3-11 2-2 11; Haley Cain 3-4 0-0 7; Alyse Moore
1-3 1-2 4; Brooklyn Diederich 1-7 0-0 3. Totals: 14-42 5-7 39. 3-point field
goals: 6, (Hankinson 3, Cain, Diederich, Moore).