Louisburg girls play complete game in revenge win over Spring Hill

Louisburg senior Brooklyn Diederich knocks down one of her three 3-pointers on the night Thursday as she helped the Lady Cats to an 18-point win over Spring Hill.

SPRING HILL — It has been a memorable season so far for the Louisburg girls basketball team.

The Lady Cats had just two losses through 14 games going into last week, but they had the opportunity to avenge one of those setbacks Thursday when they traveled to Spring Hill.

Louisburg fell by double digits to the Broncos earlier this season, but the Lady Cats returned the favor with one of their more complete performances of the season. 

They hit seven 3-pointers and took a nine-point halftime lead and the Lady Cats never looked back in a 61-43 victory over Spring Hill.

“The girls for sure wanted revenge from earlier in the season, and beating Spring Hill was one of our goals going into the season,” Louisburg coach Adrianne Lane said. “So beating them felt like a huge accomplishment.

“I felt like the girls played a complete game against Spring Hill. We have played a lot of good quarters throughout the season, but I thought this game was our most consistent game so far this year. They played so hard and battled the entire game.”

In the previous meeting, the Lady Cats (13-2) had trouble cracking the Spring Hill zone and the Broncos made it difficult on them to score.

That wasn’t a problem this time around as Louisburg knocked down seven 3-pointers to loosen up the Spring Hill defense and the Lady Cats were also able to score inside. 

Defense was also key for Louisburg as it limited Spring Hill’s looks at the basket and held the Broncos to just 19 second half points.

“Our defense was much better this game, and I thought it got better throughout the game as well,” Lane said. “We worked very hard as a team, helped each other, and communicated very well. Also being 7 of 11 from the 3-point line doesn’t hurt.

“Our outside shooting was fantastic, we got great looks because we moved the ball so well and we played inside-outside basketball. I felt like we did a great job of not forcing shots and knowing when we were open.”

Seniors Megan Foote and Brooklyn Diederich were accurate from the outside as Foote was 4-for-4 from the 3-point line, while Diederich was 3-for-5. Foote also finished with a game-high 19 points

The Lady Cats were able to get a lot from their inside game as well as senior Madilyn Melton was second on the team in scoring with 18 points and had seven rebounds, five blocks, four assists and two steals. Melton also had to guard Spring Hill’s top inside player in Ali Frank. 

“Megan and Brooklyn were on fire from the 3-point line,” Lane said. “They both have been working so hard in practice with their shooting, so I was so happy their hard work paid off against Spring Hill. Madilyn also played so great. She ran the floor and she guarded Ali Frank so well. She played great on both sides of the basketball.”

Senior Alyse Moore was big for the Lady Cats on the glass as she recorded a team-high 10 rebounds, while junior Jordan Mynsted had 11 points and five rebounds.

Louisburg got out to a fast start after jumping out to a 13-3 advantage to begin the game, but Spring Hill ended the first quarter with an 11-2 run to get back in it. 

The Lady Cats came right back with an 18-point second quarter and took a 33-24 halftime lead. It would be more than enough for the Lady Cats as they pulled away in the second half.

Weather has played a factor in the Lady Cats’ schedule this week as today’s game with Eudora was postponed and was rescheduled for Feb. 25.

As for the rest of this week, the Lady Cats will travel to Fort Scott on Thursday for a makeup game before hosting Piper on Friday in a Frontier League matchup.

LOU 15 18 12 16 — 61

SH 14 10 10 9 — 43

LOUISBURG (13-2): Megan Foote 6-7 3-4 19; Madilyn Melton 8-11 2-5 18; Jordan Mynsted 3-9 5-6 11; Brooklyn Diederich 3-6 0-0 9; Alyse Moore 1-2 0-2 2; Brianne Kuhlman 1-4 0-2 2. Totals: 22-39 10-21 61. 3-point field goals: 7, (Foote 4, Diederich 3)

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