Lady Cats fall to Spring Hill on homecoming

Louisburg senior Haley Cain reaches out to catch a pass near the basket Friday against Spring Hill at Louisburg High School.

The Louisburg girls basketball team was hoping the third time was the charm Friday against Spring Hill.

The Lady Cats, who have already split a pair of games with the Broncos earlier this season, had a chance to win that deciding third game at home during homecoming. Unfortunately, Louisburg wasn’t able to slow down Spring Hill, especially in the second half, as the Lady Cats fell, 44-31.

“Our girls competed hard and gave a great effort,” Louisburg interim coach Leanna Willer said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert much of our effort into points. We were getting the opportunities we wanted, but we are going to have to continue working on finishing those plays.”

Spring Hill junior Alli Frank gave the Lady Cats problems much of the night as she accounted for more than half of her team’s points. Frank finished with a game-high 23 points and also pulled down seven rebounds.

Frank provided a lot of those points in the second half where the Broncos outscored the Lady Cats, 25-12, after Louisburg trailed by just one point at halftime.

Louisburg (7-9), which found itself tied 12-all at the end of the first quarter, saw it offensive production start to dwindle. The Lady Cats had trouble scoring over the Spring Hill zone defense as they packed it in and they weren’t able to score inside.

“Spring Hill’s defense is definitely tough,” Willer said. “They pack into the lane very well and collapse on any ball that gets inside. We knew this would be the case and looked to score from the outside to open up some opportunities for our bigs in the lane.”

The Lady Cats knocked down just two 3-pointers on the night, so it made it difficult for them to get the looks they were wanting inside.

Junior Madilyn Melton tried to create on the inside for Louisburg and scored a team-high 13 points to go along with nine rebounds, four steals and three blocks. Junior Alyse Moore pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds and also tied Melton with four steals.

Spring Hill held just one a point lead going into halftime, but the Broncos pulled away and eventually built a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter to pull away.

Louisburg will face another tough opponent tonight as it hosts No. 4 Eudora on Senior Night as the Lady Cats honor senior players Haley Cain and Sydni Keagle. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

“We are focusing on one possession at a time, within one game at a time, starting with Eudora tonight,” Willer said. “Each day at practice is a clean slate and brand new opportunity to put in the work to get better. We all know that we have had our ups and downs this season, but none of that really matters when we step out onto the floor. The score will always start at 0-0 and we will have to earn everything we get. We are looking to finish this regular season on a high note headed into sub-state.”

LOU               12           6             6             7 – 31

SH                  12           7             12           13 – 44

LOUISBURG (7-9): Madilyn Melton 5-10 2-3 13; Alyse Moore 1-5 4-9 6; Brooklyn Diederich 2-10 0-0 5; Adyson Ross 2-3 1-2 5; Haley Cain 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 11-43 7-14 31. 3-point field goals: 2, (Diederich, Melton)

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