Lady Panthers’ late push not enough to down Cougars

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The Western girls’ basketball team entered its contest against Carroll High School on Dec. 4 with a 4-1 record and plenty of momentum. Unfortunately, the Lady Panthers went home with a 50-44 loss.

Worse, the misstep started a losing streak that the girls hope to stop on Saturday evening at Twin Lakes. Now at 4-4 and more than a third of the season behind them, Western will be working to salvage their record. But it all started against Carroll.

The Lady Cougars are undefeated and rely heavily upon a trio of strong shooters in Kinleigh Randle, Mady Isley, and Jillian Salts. The girls scored 14, 16, and 12 points, respectively, to nearly dispatch Western on their own in the contest.

Western was harassed consistently from the in-bounds pass. Carroll’s defense was full contact, resulting in regular tie-ups and jump balls that often deprived the Lady Panthers of a possession. This heavy press kept the Western guards concentrating on just holding onto the ball rather than looking for an open shooter or a path to the basket.

This pressure also resulted in low accuracy for Western. The girls managed to hit just 29 percent of their shots from the field. Not surprisingly, the physical nature of the game meant a lot of trips to the charity stripe. The two teams combined for 37 fouls, though no player fouled out for either team.

This parade to the line clearly favored Western and kept them in the game. The Lady Panthers hit 12 of 15 foul shots, as compared to Carroll’s seven of 15 performance. Had there been a few more minutes on the clock, the Lady Cougars easily could have played themselves out of a win, given Western’s success.

Western leaned on a total team effort to stay in the game. Sophomore Allora Bevington was the only Lady Panther to reach double digits in scoring with 10 points.

Bevington was joined by sophomore Kayleigh Auth, who managed eight points. In both cases, half of their point total came from the free throw line.

Senior Ellyse Walden led Western in rebounding with eight boards. Bevington and junior Ella Rawlings registered three assists each to aid the scoring.

Following this loss, Western (4-4) dropped contests to Oak Hill and Kokomo. They hope to find the win column on Dec. 13 as they travel to Twin Lakes (2-7).

See additional photos from this game, along with photos from the junior varsity contest, courtesy of Adam Hartsough, on the Lantern’s Facebook page or group.