Lady Cats roll Turner in first game of new year

Freshman guard Adyson Ross drives to the basket during the Lady Cats’ road game Tuesday against Turner.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – In its first game of the new year, the Louisburg girls basketball team couldn’t have asked for a better start to 2020.

The Lady Cats used a stingy defense and a deep bench to help them to a 72-18 victory over Turner on Tuesday at Turner High School. The win moves Louisburg’s record to 4-1 on the year as it currently holds the No. 10 ranking in Class 4A.

“We worked hard over break and everyone is in the same boat,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “You have to get back to where you were before break and it is crazy. You have to get that mentality back and we focused on toughness drills, worked on a lot of defensive stuff and I thought we took care of business. Offensively we have some stuff to clean up, but overall it was a good night.”

Defensively, the Lady Cats shined as they used their 1-3-1 pressure defense to force several Turner turnovers, which led to easy baskets in transition. Louisburg racked up 47 points in the first half and held the Golden Bears to just nine.

Junior Brooklyn Diederich had a big scoring night for the Lady Cats with a game-high 15 points, including three 3-pointers. Juniors Alyse Moore and Madilyn Melton also finished in double figures with 12 points and sophomores Delaney Wright and Jordan Mynsted added nine.

Lowry shuffled five players in and out of the game at different times throughout the contest, which allowed several younger players to see varsity minutes. Freshman guards Brianne Kuhlman, Adyson Ross and Emma Lohse all saw playing time and each found the scoring column.

“It was nice to be able to rotate a lot of kids,” Lowry said. “I thought the freshmen, like Adyson, Brianne and Emma, all did a real nice job tonight. It is these kinds of situations where we can get them some experience that will help them down the road past this season. For it being our first game out of break, and being on the road, I think it was good for us.”

The schedule will get quite a bit tougher for the Lady Cats and it starts tonight when they travel to No. 7 Eudora. The Cardinals have been going through some transition as their head coach, Richard Ebel, was relieved of his duties before the holiday break and they currently have a new coaching staff.

Despite the changes, the Lady Cats know it will be a difficult challenge on the road in Frontier League play.

“Eudora is fantastic and they have one of the best point guards around,” Lowry said. “They are dealing with some stuff right now, but I think they are going to be ready to play. It will be tough for them, but I know they will be ready.

“We have a tough four-game stretch coming up too. We have Eudora, but then we get three games at home, with Bonner Springs, Baldwin and Frontenac and Baldwin and Frontenac are back-to-back nights. It is a gauntlet, but that is the time of year we are in and it is time to play. We have 80 percent of our games left to play and 60 percent of our practices are done. It is about improving and getting better and we are going to be a different team between now and the end of the season. We have a lot of growth left to happen.”

LOU               20           27           15           10 – 72

TUR               5             4             4             5 – 18

LOUISBURG (4-1): Brooklyn Diederich 15, Alyse Moore 12, Madilyn Melton 12, Delaney Wright 9, Jordan Mynsted 9, Brianne Kuhlman 6, Adyson Ross 5, Megan Foote 2, Emma Lohse 2. Totals: 27 12-22 72. 3-point field goals: 6, (Diederich 3, Wright 2, Ross)

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