Lady Cat rally comes up short in home loss to Spring Hill

By Andy Brown
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Updated: February 13, 2024

Louisburg junior Jillian Asher drives to the basket and puts up a shot Friday during the Lady Cats’ home game against Spring Hill.

The first half wasn’t exactly what the Louisburg girls basketball team was hoping for Friday against Spring Hill.

Turnovers haunted the Lady Cats as Spring Hill took a double digit lead into halftime. That all changed for Louisburg in the second half.

Louisburg cut down the mistakes and outscored Spring Hill in the final two quarters, but it wasn’t quite enough in a 43-37 loss to the Broncos.

“I thought we played good in the second half, but we just had way too many turnovers in the first half,” Louisburg coach Adrianne Lane said. “We probably had 15-plus going into halftime and we took better care of the basketball in the second half. We also ran some different stuff and the girls handled that well.”

It was a much a different scenario than when the teams met a month ago. Spring Hill won the game by double digits, but the Lady Cats made it more difficult this time around.

“We are a better team than when we played them last, but I think Spring Hill is a better team as well,” Lane said. “Both teams have gotten better, but we played them closer this time around. I think the girls see these things and they know they are getting better.”

Spring Hill led Louisburg by just four going into the the second quarter, but the Broncos went on a 15-5 run to take a 14-point lead. Louisburg junior Shylar Whiting hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first half to give the Lady Cats a little momentum going into halftime.

Louisburg (4-13) was better defensively in the second half and took care of the ball. Although the Lady Cats had 23 turnovers for the game, many of those came in the first two quarters.

***Louisburg junior Sami Lane pulls up for a jumper Friday against Spring Hill.***

They outscored the Broncos 20-15 in the second half, but could never get closer than six. A pair of 3-pointers from Sami Lane helped close the gap in the fourth quarter.

Spring Hill’s Sydney Buscher and Isla Herman had big nights last time around, but the Lady Cats tried to focus more on slowing the Broncos’ two players down. Buscher still had 16 points to lead all scorers, but limited Herman to just nine.

“We guarded Buscher differently,” Lane said. “We wanted to be more physical and keep her away from the basket as much as possible. I thought the girls did a good job with that. We did foul her more, but she didn’t make her free throws so that worked for us. We face-guarded Herman and were able to get couple offensive fouls on her as well. They are fast though and we had a hard time getting back sometimes, especially when we are face guarding a couple different players.”

Louisburg sophomore Morgan Latham had a good night in the post as she finished with a team-high 10 points to go along with five rebounds. Sami Lane and Ashlyn Kuhlman each had eight points, while Kuhlman pulled down five rebounds.

Junior Sabra Brueggen had a team-high seven rebounds to lead Louisburg.

The Lady Cats will try and bounce back tonight as they host Eudora. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

LOU 9 8 8 12 — 37

SH 13 15 6 9 — 43

LOUISBURG (4-13): Morgan Latham 5-8 0-0 10; Ashlyn Kuhlman 2-6 2-2 8; Sami Lane 3-5 0-0 8; Jillian Asher 1-2 2-2 4; Sabra Brueggen 1-4 2-4 4; Shylar Whiting 1-8 0-0 3. Totals: 13-35 4-6 37. 3-point field goals: 5, (Kuhlman 2, Lane 2, Whiting)