Lady Cats suffer first loss of season at Ottawa

Louisburg senior Adyson Ross goes up for a shot and gets fouled Thursday at Ottawa High School. Ross finished with 15 points in the loss.

OTTAWA — After a successful start to its season, the Louisburg girls basketball team experienced its first hiccup of the 22-23 campaign.

The Lady Cats couldn’t overcome a rough second quarter as they fell to Ottawa, 47-31, on Thursday at Ottawa High School.

Whether it was a tough shooting night, or struggles on defense, Louisburg had a difficult time with a more physical Cyclones team.

“This was a tough game overall for us,” Louisburg coach Adrianne Lane said. “It felt like we couldn’t get anything accomplished on the defensive or offensive side of the ball. It felt like we were almost a half-second behind Ottawa on both ends of the floor.”

Louisburg (6-1) took a one-point lead going into the second quarter, but the Cyclones came to life offensively as they outscored the Lady Cats, 18-7, and took a 26-16 lead at halftime.

The Cyclones’ lead ballooned to 19 in the second half as the Lady Cats shot 22 percent from the floor.

“Ottawa was very physical and tough, and we had not seen a team that played that physical yet,” Lane said. “They did a great job pushing us out of our offense and we had a hard time getting get looks at the basket because of this. They were also very physical on the boards, Ottawa did a great job keeping us off the offensive boards.”

Louisburg senior Adyson Ross provided a bulk of the Lady Cats’ scoring as she finished with a team-high 15 points. Another senior, Emma Prettyman, had a team-best seven rebounds, while senior Delanie Tally led Louisburg with five steals.

The Lady Cats will try and bounce back tonight as they host Spring Hill. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

“Losing is tough and never the outcome we want, but we always try to learn and get better after we lose,” Lane said. “I can get better and I can help the team get better because of the loss.

LOU 9 7 9 6 — 31

OTT 8 18 13 8 — 47

LOUISBURG (6-1): Adyson Ross 6-15 1-1 15; Brianne Kuhlman 2-5 0-0 4; Emma Prettyman 1-7 2-4 4; Emma Lohse 1-8 0-0 2; Ashley Branine 1-6 0-2 2; Delanie Tally 1-9 0-2 2; Ava Baker 0-3 2-2 2. Totals: 12-55 5-11 31. 3-point field goals: 2, (Ross 2)