By Gabrielle Gasser ASSOCIATE EDITOR
BIG SKY – The Lady Big Horns beat the Lima Lady Bears on Feb. 8, setting two school records all in the span of four quarters of basketball.
The JV boys played Lima first, falling in a close game with a final score of 50-44 Lima.
The Lady Big Horns built an early lead with their consistent outside shooting and full court press. They only allowed the Lady Bears to score three points in the first quarter ending it with a 16-point lead 19-3.
The Lady Big Horns continued scoring consistently, building their lead in the second quarter with offensive rebounds and second-chance points. A buzzer-beater 3-pointer from freshman Big Horn Addy Malinowski boosted the home team’s lead to 35-10 at the half.
In the first half, the Lady Big Horns made nine 3-pointers, a school record for 3-pointers scored in a single half according to Head Coach Loren Bough.
“We held Lima to nine shots in the first half [with] great execution on the press,” Bough wrote in an email to EBS.
In the third quarter the pressure from the Lady Big Horns caused turnovers from the Lady Bears.
Lima logged nine points to end the third quarter but still trailed Lone Peak 48-19.
The younger team members from the Lady Big Horns bench got the chance to play for most of the fourth quarter including freshman Claire Hoadley, who hit a 3-pointer late in the game. The Lady Big Horns scored 13 points in the fourth quarter cementing their victory with a final score of 61-29.
“We expect to play Lima again on Wednesday in the [District tournament] ‘play in round’ and hope to continue to improve on our offensive and defensive trend line improvements,” Bough wrote.
The girls scored 13 total 3-pointers in the entire game, the second school record they set, according to Bough. Seven of the nine girls on the team made 3-pointers and all nine of the girls scored.
“We spent the first 75 percent of the season working on offense—we set a goal of getting an average of 50 points per game and improving our 3-point shooting ability,” wrote Bough in an email to EBS. “However, as the saying goes, ‘Defense wins championships,’ and over the past two weeks we have reset our focus on improving our defense both man to man and our press while reducing the number of fouls we commit. The trends seem to be moving in our favor as we caused more than 20 turnovers in the past 2 games and our 3-point percentage improved to a season high 33 percent last night.”
The Lady Big Horns hit their home court again on the evening of Feb. 11 for their Senior Night matchup against the Sheridan Panthers. They will be celebrating the outstanding career of lone senior Carly Wilson.
