Lady Wildcats Show Dramatic Improvement in 50-37 Loss to DuBois

AdminJanuary 3, 2017

2 minutes read

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The Lady Wildcats had to wait until the new year to host their first basketball game of the season and suffered a 50-37 loss to visiting Du Bois to move to 0-6 on the season (0-1 PHAC). The game was postponed from Dec. 12, 2016.

Outwardly, it wouldn’t appear that there is little of a positive nature to be taken form a 13 point loss. But … Central Mountain’s effort in this game was a huge step forward in many ways.

Just last night the Lady ‘Cats suffered a humbling 47-21 road loss at Mifflinburg in their first action following the holiday break where they only managed to score a total of 6 points in the entire first half.

“We came out a lot better than last night, said CM head coach Terry Green, We’ve had over two weeks off, it’s been almost 3 weeks since we played Jersey Shore. You can only do so much in practice, we don’t have enough game reps right now,” he explained.

The last couple of games have been a little rough,” Green observed, “But, I liked what I saw tonight in terms of our effort all around in the first half.”

That first half effort matched Central Mountain’s entire offensive effort from the night before as they were only trailing the Lady Beavers 26-21 at the intermission.

Du Bois took advantage of some key turnovers and personal fouls to maintain a slim lead for most of the first half but a persistent effort by the Lady Wildcats kept the hosts within reach. Just when the Lady Beavers thought they could break open a more comfortable lead, CM would answer back with a bucket from downtown by either Alexis Anastos or Marissa Moyer to keep the hosts within reach. When Du Bois would shut down the perimeter option, Averie Pringle or Elaina Eckley would work the lane to keep pace with Du Bois.

That extra effort did come at a price as well as Central Mountain garnered 18 total personal fouls on the night and gave up a dozen turnovers. Though those miscues were costly, coach Green was pleased to see the aggressive work his team put into the game.

“I told them, 18 fouls isn’t going to cut it,” Green told his squad after the game, “Even though 12 turnovers is our season best, we hit one goal but we had too many fouls tonight.”

“This group is very special, I have said that from Day One,” Green said complementing his team, “This was a good sign for me to see the fight they put up against a very good Du Bois team. If we don’t have all those fouls, it’s a different ball game.”

In the second half, Du Bois maintained their effort and slowly began to inch away outpacing the Lady ‘Cats for the win.

Leading the way offensively for the Lady ‘Cats were Alexis Anastos, Averie Pringle and Elaina Eckley, all with 9 points each. Marissa Moyer scored 6 points for CM with Taylor Fletcher and Autumn Young each contributing 2 points. All the points scored by Anastos and Moyer came from outside the 3-point arc and each shot came at critical points in the game to keep the margin close.

In the JV contest, Central Mountain pulled out a hard-fought 40-38 overtime victory for the first win of the season for either CM squad.

Next up for the Lady Wildcats is a road trip to Huntingdon on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017.