Lady Cats fall to No. 4 Baldwin at home

Louisburg junior Brooklyn Diederich puts up a 3-pointer during Saturday’s home contest against Baldwin.

It was a battle of ranked teams
Saturday at Louisburg High School as No. 10 Louisburg had an opportunity to
knock off No. 4 Baldwin.

Unfortunately for the Lady Cats,
the game didn’t go as they would have hoped.

Baldwin used a big second quarter
to jump out large lead and the Lady Cats weren’t able to recover in a 67-46
loss to the Bulldogs.

“There were times we competed with good energy and effort, but we didn’t execute as well as we could have,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “You have to credit Baldwin for their defensive pressure and the toughness they played with.”

Louisburg
(6-3) got off to a good start as it took an 11-8 lead early as junior Madilyn
Melton scored the team’s first six points, followed by a 3-pointer from
Brooklyn Diederich and a basket from Megan Foote.

From there, Baldwin was able to take over as it went on an 11-2 run to go up six and then expanded its lead to 33-20 at halftime. The Bulldogs grew their lead to 18 points at the end of the third quarter.

Baldwin
made it tough for Louisburg to defend as the Bulldogs knocked down nine
3-pointers and also used their size inside to score 32 points in the paint.

“Baldwin
definitely shot the ball well and complimented that with some strong inside
play.” Lowry said. “It challenged us with several defensive rotations and also
caused us issues with defending their penetration.”

Melton
found a lot of success for the Lady Cats as she scored a team-high 16 points to
go along with a team-high eight rebounds and three blocks. Sophomore Jordan
Mynsted was next in scoring with seven points and Diederich finished with six.

Louisburg
will try and bounce back today when it travels to Wellsville for the Top Gun
Tournament. The Lady Cats will tip off at 6:30 p.m. against Anderson County and
will also play Thursday and Friday nights.

“Our kids
are staying the course and working hard in practice to prepare for the games
ahead,” Lowry said. “Games like this provide us good experience and lessons for
the stretch run that is ahead of us.”

LOU               11           9             9             17 – 46

BAL                12           21           14           20 – 67

LOUISBURG
(6-3): Madilyn Melton 6-15 4-8 16; Jordan Mynsted 3-5 1-1 7; Brooklyn Diederich
2-5 0-0 6; Delaney Wright 2-9 1-2 5; Megan Foote 1-3 2-3 4; Haley Cain 1-5 2-2
4; Emma Lohse 1-1 0-0 2; Brianne Kuhlman 0-0 1-2 1; Alyse Moore 0-3 1-2 1.
Totals: 16-48 12-20 46. 3-point field goals: 2, (Diederich 2)