De Soto pulls away from Lady Cats

Louisburg’s Megan Lemke (left) and Carson Buffington go up for a rebound during Tuesday’s home contest against De Soto. The Lady Cats came up short in a 55-31 loss on senior night.

In its first meeting with De Soto, the Louisburg girls basketball team had a hard time stopping De Soto’s inside game.

So when Tuesday’s contest came around, the Lady Cats took on the challenge to slow down De Soto’s post players – and they did. In doing so, however, Louisburg saw what the other half of the De Soto lineup can do.

De Soto connected on seven 3-pointers, many of which came in the second half and Louisburg didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up in the 55-31 senior night loss.

“We defended it much better, but we just have to pick your poison with them,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “They are a good young team and they are pretty solid.

“They hit those shots in the second half, but at the same time they had a couple big girls that we had to defend inside. The first half we kept it close, but in the second half they just hit some big shots.”

Following the game, two Lady Cats and their parents were honored during senior night ceremonies as Megan Lemke and Megan Roy played their final regular season home contest.

Seniors Megan Lemke (left) and Megan Roy were honored during a senior night ceremony following their game Tuesday against De Soto.

“I can’t say enough about both girls,” Lowry said. “Megan Roy has been hurt, but it was a situation where she was helping her team out and she got injured. I am so glad that she decided to come out and play again. She is an absolute pleasure to be around and such a great kid.

“This is Megan Lemke’s fourth year playing. She will be a four-year, three-sport athlete and she is our team captain. The girls follow her and love her to death. She is a great teammate and I am going to miss both of those girls a lot.”

As for the game, the Lady Cats (3-16) got off to a good start and held a 9-7 lead with under a minute remaining in the first quarter on a 3-pointer from Madisen Simpson, but De Soto rallied to take a 12-11 lead going into the second.

De Soto opened the second quarter with a mini 6-1 run, which led to a 23-16 halftime lead, but the Lady Cats were still in the game.

After halftime is when De Soto started to pull away. It went on a 10-0 run to start third quarter and outscored Louisburg 22-8 to lead 45-27 going into the fourth quarter.

“We came in with a game plan and for the most part our players did pretty well,” Lowry said. “There were a few breakdowns, but they did what we asked them to do. De Soto just hit shots. They are a good team.”

Simpson led the Lady Cats in scoring with 10 points, while Lemke added seven points, seven rebounds and a team-high three steals. Freshman Carson Buffington led Louisburg with 11 rebounds on the night.

Louisburg will end its regular season Friday when it travels to Paola in its final game before the substate tournament. Tipoff is set for approximately 6 p.m.

LOUISBURG                11           5             8             7 – 31

DE SOTO                     12           11           22           10 – 55

LOUISBURG (3-16): Madisen Simpson 2-10 4-4 10; Megan Lemke 1-6 5-8 7; Isabelle Holtzen 2-5 1-2 5; Carson Buffington 1-5 2-6 4; Kennia Hankinson 0-5 3-4 3; Haven Turner 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 7-33 15-24 31. 3-point field goals: 2, (Simpson 2)

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