Louisburg girls battle Baldwin in loss

By Andy Brown
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Updated: December 9, 2016

Louisburg junior Isabelle Holtzen dribbles past a Baldwin defender Tuesday in the second game of the Wildcat-Bulldog Classic. The Lady Cats fell 56-50.

BURLINGTON – As Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry was gathering his things and getting ready to leave the floor, a group of parents walked over to him with something to say.

Those kind of conversations aren’t always the most pleasant, especially after his Louisburg team just lost a hard fought contest. However, these parents weren’t from his school – but his opponent.

“We had Baldwin parents stop us after the game and tell me that our kids play so hard and a great game,” Lowry said. “Those are great things to hear. These girls give everything. They play their tails off and they are just tough kids.”

It wasn’t something it could put in the win column, but for the Louisburg High School girls basketball team, Tuesday’s game with Baldwin had its fair share of small victories.

The Lady Cats faced off with the Bulldogs in the second game of the Wildcat-Bulldog Classic at Burlington Middle School and left with a 56-50 loss. Still, against one of the top teams in the Frontier League, Louisburg showed it wasn’t going to back down.

Louisburg (0-3) trailed by as many as 17 points in the second quarter and whittled the Baldwin lead all the way down to a two possession game late in the fourth quarter. The Lady Cats did all this as they were saddled with foul trouble for most of the contest.

Starters Carson Buffington, Paige Buffington and Madisen Simpson all had three fouls in the first half and the Lady Cats had to rely on their bench for much of the second quarter and into the second half.

Senior Paige Buffington puts up a shot in the lane Tuesday against Baldwin at Burlington.

Juniors Isabelle Holtzen, Haven Turner and Ryan Caldwell, along with freshman Haley Cain, all gave Louisburg valuable minutes to keep the game within reach.

“That is a good team we played,” Lowry said. “Baldwin is as good as any team that we will see and there are a lot of good players in that group. We had other kids step up when we needed them to. We had freshmen and sophomores come and contribute when we need them. That was great to see. We had a lot of players that had to sit down and just couldn’t play. We had players foul out at the end and we had players still battle away and that is awesome to see.”

Louisburg whittled the Baldwin lead to single digits in the third quarter on a quick 6-0 run on baskets from Paige Buffington, Carson Buffington and Lancaster as Baldwin battled foul trouble itself.

Baldwin ballooned its lead to double digits again in the fourth quarter, but with 45 seconds left Lancaster hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to six again. Louisburg could get no closer.

Still, the Lady Cats outscored Baldwin 25-17 in the second half and hope to carry that forward for the rest of the season.

“We have struggled a lot with the third quarter,” Lowry said. “But this time we won the third and fourth quarters and that was big for us. It is a confidence builder because we haven’t been doing that. We haven’t been winning that third quarter, which is something that I think is important for the entire game.

Simpson led Louisburg in scoring with a team-high 15 points and Lancaster also finished in double figures with 11. Carson and Paige Buffington each added seven points.

Carson also pulled down a team-high six rebounds and senior Emalee Overbay added five. Holtzen came off the bench to lead Louisburg with four steals.

Louisburg will try for its first win of the season Friday in the final game of the Wildcat-Bulldog Classic as it faces off with Anderson County.

BAL 17 22 8 9 – 56

LOU 12 13 13 12 – 50

LOUISBURG (0-3): Madisen Simpson 15, Tayler Lancaster 11, Paige Buffington 7, Carson Buffington 7, Isabelle Holtzen 6, Haley Cain 1, Ryan Caldwell 1. Totals: 13-33 20-31 50. 3-point field goals: 4, (Simpson 2, Lancaster, Holtzen)

BUFFINGTON BREAKS REBOUND RECORD IN LOSS

Louisburg sophomore Carson Buffington had the night of her life Monday – at least as far as rebounds are concerned.

Buffington broke her own school rebounding record as she pulled down 22 boards in the first round game of the Wildcat-Bulldog Classic against Burlington. In the season opener, Buffington pulled down 18 rebounds against Pittsburg on Friday when she eclipsed her school record of 17 a year ago.

“That is impressive,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “To average about 20 rebounds in two games is pretty good. I peeked at the state record and it is like 423, which is a crazy number. Who knows though, Carson has a lot of ball to play left.”

Buffington’s record-breaking performance was the lone positive in what was a rough night for Louisburg as it lost to Burlington 60-35. Burlington, which is ranked No. 4 in Class 4A-Division II, put pressure on the Lady Cats for most of the night.

Louisburg trailed 40-26 going into the final period, but Burlington went on a 20-9 run in the final frame to secure the win.

“It was ugly for us,” Lowry said. “It was night and day from how we played against Baldwin. Our effort wasn’t really good and our defense wasn’t where it needed to be.”

Paige Buffington led Louisburg in scoring with nine points and Tayler Lancaster finished with eight. Carson Buffington also had seven points and four steals in the loss, while senior Emalee Overbay added seven rebounds.

BUR 12 16 12 20 – 60

LOU 7 12 9 9 – 35

LOUISBURG: Paige Buffington 9, Tayler Lancaster 8, Carson Buffington 7, Haley Cain 4, Madisen Simpson 3, Isabelle Holtzen 3, Emalee Overbay 2, Chloe Renner 1. Totals: 13-72 7-23 35. 3-point field goals: 4, (Lancaster 2, P. Buffington, Simpson)