Lady Cats catch fire in win over Bonner Springs

Junior Madilyn Melton drives past a Bonner Springs defender Tuesday during the Lady Cats’ 52-34 win over the Braves.

From the opening tip, it was obvious that the night was going to belong to the Louisburg girls basketball team.

On Tuesday against Bonner Springs, the Lady Cats scored 14 of the first 16 points and used that start to roll the Braves, 52-34, at Louisburg High School.

In what was one of their best shooting nights of the young season, mixed in with good defense, the No. 10-ranked Lady Cats were able to move their record to 5-1 on the season.

“Bonner is young, athletic and their coach does a really good job with his girls, but I am also proud of the way we responded against that,” Louisburg coach Shawn Lowry said. “There were times where it was really physical and I thought that we responded well to that and I thought our confidence was good too. At some point, this group is going to have to start believing what they can be this year.”

The Lady Cats certainly believed Tuesday as they shot 44 percent from floor and knocked down a season-high eight 3-pointers, despite only going 4-for-14 from the free-throw line. Louisburg came out strong as it opened the game on a 14-2 run.

Bonner Springs made a run back to cut it to a two-point advantage to start the second quarter, but the Lady Cats ended the first half on an 8-2 spurt to take a 25-17 halftime lead. The Braves would get no closer.

Madilyn Melton led the Lady Cats in scoring as the Louisburg junior finished with a team-high 12 points and seven rebounds, to go along with six deflections and three steals. Juniors Alyse Moore and Megan Foote added nine points in the win.

Senior Haley Cain came off the bench to also score nine points, all of which came from behind the 3-point line. Cain also had a team-high four assists.

“I think it is credit to the girls putting in the work,” Lowry said of his team’s offensive success. “They are staying after practice and coming in on the weekends on their own and shooting. This is a group that can be a good shooting team.

“I really thought Haley came off the bench and gave us a nice spark and it was great leadership from her. I am really proud of what she did.”

Louisburg also shined defensively at times as it shut down Bonner Springs’ inside game and forced 26 turnovers thanks to the Lady Cats’ aggressive zone defense. Those turnovers turned into 25 points for the Lady Cats as they made it difficult for the Braves.

“We didn’t slow them down much inside at the beginning, but we made some adjustments and that really helped,” Lowry said. “I have to give credit to the girls because they responded to the adjustments what we needed to make. They were communicating with each other and talking on defense. That really was the difference. I made some adjustments, but it was them talking that was the biggest part of that.”

The schedule will get a lot tougher for the Lady Cats beginning tomorrow. It will be a battle of ranked teams as No. 10 Louisburg hosts No. 4 Baldwin (7-1) at 6 p.m. Friday in a Frontier League matchup.

Louisburg will then turnaround Saturday to host Frontenac in a makeup contest. Tipoff for that game is set for 4:30 p.m.

“We want to be 6-1 after Friday and we have to play a good Baldwin team on our home floor,” Lowry said. “We are excited to play that game and that is the mentality that this group has right now.

“Baldwin is a fantastic team from coaching to players, and top to bottom they have such a great program. It is going to be extremely hard and we are going to have to prepare with that in mind. We can’t even think about Saturday’s game against Frontenac and we have to be all in with Baldwin on Friday.”

LOU               17           8             19           8 – 52

BON              12           5             12           5 – 34

LOUISBURG (5-1): Madilyn Melton 5-8 2-6 12; Haley Cain 3-7 0-0 9; Alyse Moore 3-7 1-2 9; Megan Foote 4-7 0-2 9; Delaney Wright 2-4 0-2 5; Brooklyn Diederich 2-10 0-0 5; Sydni Keagle 1-1 0-0 2; Jordan Mynsted 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 20-46 4-14 52. 3-point field goals: 8, (Cain 3, Moore 2, Wright, Diederich, Foote)

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