Spring Hill hands Louisburg its first loss of season

Louisburg senior Brooklyn Diederich battles Spring Hill’s Cate Milroy for a loose ball Friday in Louisburg.

For the first time all season, the Louisburg girls basketball team walked off the court with that sick feeling in its stomach.

The feeling of defeat.

The Lady Cats, who won their first eight games of the season, came up short in a 52-40 set back Friday at home to Spring Hill. A rough final three quarters sent Louisburg to its first loss of the year.

“It’s never easy to lose, and the girls were disappointed in how we played overall as a team,” Louisburg coach Adrianne Lane said. “We will get better because of this loss. We can learn from our mistakes and fix them and become a better all-around team. I thought the girls played hard the entire game and did not quit. We played and battled till the buzzer sounded.”

Louisburg (8-1) got out to a fast start against the Broncos as the Lady Cats went on a 12-3 run to open the game.

Shortly after that, the Broncos went to a zone defense and Louisburg didn’t have an answer for it. Shots weren’t falling and the Broncos limited second chance shots.

The Lady Cats were just 1-for-17 from 3-point range and had trouble getting good looks on the inside.

“Our shots were for sure not falling on Friday, but I think we could’ve done a better job moving the ball more in the zone, and looking for better shot options especially since our outside shots were not falling,” Lane said. “Our rebounding could’ve also been better on both ends of the court.”

Spring Hill outscored Louisburg 11-4 in the second quarter to take a four-point halftime lead. The game was tied midway through the fourth quarter, but the Lady Cats ran into foul trouble.

Senior Madilyn Melton, one the team’s main inside threats, fouled out midway through the quarter with the game tied at 35-all.

From there, Spring Hill went on a 12-4 run to end the contest and secured the win.

Junior Jordan Mynsted led Louisburg in scoring with 13 points, five rebounds and three blocks. Melton finished with nine points and senior Alyse Moore added seven points and seven rebounds.

Senior Megan Foote pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and also had four assists and two steals.

It is now tournament week for Louisburg as it will compete in the Top Gun Tournament in Wellsville. It is a tournament that not only features the No. 5 Lady Cats, but also the No. 3 team in Class 3A in Nemaha Central and the No. 3 team in Class 5A in Lansing.

Throw in other teams like Spring Hill, Baldwin and Topeka-Hayden – and it will be a challenging three days for Louisburg.

The Lady Cats, who are the No. 1 seed, open up against Wellsville at 5:15 p.m. tonight.

“We are super excited going into this week,” Lane said. “This will be a very challenging week for us, but we will use the games this week to get better as a team and that will help us come postseason.”

LOU 13 4 11 12 – 40 

SH 10 11 10 21 – 52

LOUISBURG (8-1): Jordan Mynsted 6-19 1-1 13; Madilyn Melton 3-8 3-3 9; Alyse Moore 3-6 1-7 7; Delaney Wright 1-1 1-4 4; Megan Foote 2-7 0-0 4; Brooklyn Diederich 1-10 0-0 2; Brianne Kuhlman 0-3 1-3 1. Totals: 16-54 7-18 40. 3-point field goals: 1, (Wright)