Lady Cougars battle in regional tourney

Sarah Hester, scoring her only points of the night, hit a trey to open the 2A North Regional Tournament at Newark for Rector Thursday night as the Lady Cougars met the Lady Timber Wolves of Cedar Ridge. The score seemed to set the tone of the game as the two teams ran neck and neck for three quarters before the Lady Wolves took over for good with 6:43 going in the final period to push out to a 56-46 victory.

"I thought we played well." said coach Mark Manchester. "We had a game plan and I thought the kids executed it well. They played hard and competed right up to the very end. "

Indeed, the final score was truly not indicative of the way the Lady Cougars, the 2A-3 third place team, held their own against the 2A-2 runner-up Lady Timberwolves. In fact, they never trailed the hosts until Lady Wolf Jordan Shelton hit a last second bucket ending the third period to put Cedar Ridge up by two points 36-34.

Prior to that, the Lady Cougars had been up by as much as nine, 16-7 when Crissy Crawford glanced a bucket off the backboard for a 16-7 lead at the 7:05 mark of the second period. From that point on, however, the Cedar Ridge zone began to take a toll on the Rector scoring effort.

"The bottom line is that we didn't make enough shots against their zone." said Manchester. "I knew that's what had to happen. We had to make shots."

It was the Lady Timberwolves instead who made the shots and by the half had pulled to within one point of the Lady Cougars, 24-23.

Cedar Ridge then took a brief one-point lead when Kayla Myers opened the half with a bucket for a 25-24 lead. The lead didn't last long, though, as Stephanie DeMent bottomed a 3-pointer to send the Lady Cougars back up, 27-25.

Midway through the period, Hillary Calhoun hit a pair of charity shots to push the lead back to five, 32-27. As the period wound down, however, Myers and Jordan Shelton combined for nine points for a 36-34 lead at the end of the game's first 24:00.

Crawford opened the final period with a bucket to once again tie the game, but then Christy Lovell hit both ends of a one-and-one and Cedar Ridge never looked back all the way to the 56-46 final.

In the end, Manchester said missed and made free throws, as it often does, played a big part in the loss as the Lady Cougars were 9 of 20 from the charity stripe while Cedar Ridge was 18 of 27.

"If you're going to beat a quality opponent on the road you have to make the free throws," continued Manchester.

Crawford led Rector with18 points with DeMent scoring eight, Calhoun seven and Rhoda Classen six. Rebecca Dodd and Destinei Heathcott finished with two each.

For Cedar Ridge Shelton had 19, Myers 12 and Chelsey Ballard 10.

While the loss ended the season for the Lady Cougars, Manchester was, nevertheless, upbeat.

"I want to tell you something, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, I'm so proud of these girls." the coach concluded. " I'm proud of the way they've played this year and the effort they've given to the program. Our seniors have given so much. Hillary in particular has been to the regional tournament the last three years and is probably the winningest female basketball player in the school's history. I'm really proud of what they did and what they accomplished and, heck, I was just along for the ride."