Lady Bulldogs drop two at regional tournament

The Lovell Lady Bulldog basketball team traveled to Lander to compete in the 3A West regional tournament this past weekend.

The seventh seeded Lady Bulldogs dropped the opening round game against the number two seed for the tournament, the Fillies of Cody, on Thursday afternoon with a final score of 49-20.

After Cody controlled the opening tip and nailed a three-pointer on the first possession, the Lady Bulldogs battled to keep the scoring gap as narrow as possible.

Trailing 6-0, Kennadee Owens got Lovell on the board with a free throw in the first quarter, but they ended the period down 9-1.

“In the first quarter, I thought defensively we held our own,” head coach Brian May said of his squad’s efforts. “We just weren’t getting a lot of looks on offense.”

Lovell fought to stay within striking distance in the second quarter with a jumper by Kenadee Rael and a Hannity Felkins layup, and Libby Mickelson added a basket and free throw to make it 18-8 with under a minute left in the half when Cody took advantage of costly turnovers in the full-court to score six points before the buzzer sounded to lead 24-8 at the break.

To begin the third, Cody rattled off four quick points before Breeah Jones drained a shot from behind the arc to make it 28-11, but that was the only scoring for the Lady Bulldogs in the quarter that left Lovell trailing 39-11.

“I think the girls stayed playing hard, but the turnovers eventually got us,” May said of their 35 total Lovell had in the game.

The Lady Bulldogs had their best offensive production in the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws by Jones, four points from Ali Walker at the charity stripe and a Jenna Hessenthaler three-pointer, but the 49-20 loss left Lovell matched up with the Lyman Lady Eagles on Friday morning to keep their state tournament appearance hopes alive.

Jones led Lovell with 5 points against the eventual regional champions from Cody, while Walker had 4 off the bench and both Mickelson and Hessenthaler ended with 3.

Rael and Felkins finished with 2 points apiece, and Owens added 1.

LYMAN

Lovell and Lyman played an overtime thriller in Lovell a few weeks prior to this rematch that the Lady Eagles pulled out with a 40-37 victory over the Lady Bulldogs.

Both teams struggled to get into offensive rhythms on Friday but found themselves in another back-and-forth game where Lyman was able to edge out Lovell 26-23 again to bring the Lady Bulldogs’ season to an end.

“We had looked at some of that film and made some adjustments on how they had played us, but teams can mix things up and be unpredictable at Regionals,” May said. “Lyman did a really good job of changing up their defenses against us this time.”

Lovell got on the board first with an offensive rebound and put-back by Owens before the Lady Eagles rattled off five straight points to lead 5-2.

Jones hit her first of three three-pointers in the contest with 2:09 remaining in the opening period that ended locked up at 5 apiece.

Reagan May’s shot from behind the arc early in the second quarter gave the Lady Bulldogs the lead before Lyman came down the floor and answered right back.

Becca Nichols added a free throw in the frame, and Jones connected again for a triple to head into halftime down 14-12.

Both teams went on a scoring drought through most of the third quarter, but after a Lyman free throw, Jones struck again to knot it up at 15-15.

The Lady Eagles scored on an offensive rebound to again regain the lead until Rael hit a running bank shot down the lane with 4.5 seconds left to head into the final quarter with 17 points each.

Mickelson gave Lovell the early lead in the fourth with two free throws, but Lyman scored down low off an inbound play underneath their hoop. 

The momentum and energy shifted to the Lady Eagles after they hit a big three-pointer to take a 22-19 advantage and held on with some extra free throws to claim the 26-23 win and eliminate the Lady Bulldogs from the tournament.

“We out rebounded them, had more shot attempts than them and had more steals than them, and those stats usually have positive outcomes,” said Coach May. “We just couldn’t get enough shots to fall.”

Jones ended her high school career leading the Lady Bulldogs with 9 points, three rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal against Lyman.

Senior guards Rael and May each added 3 points and three rebounds.

And rounding out the seniors in the program, Mickelson concluded with 2 points, seven rebounds, three steals, an assist and a block, while Owens snagged 10 rebounds and five steals and had 2 points in the game.

Also contributing on offense were Nichols with 1 point, two rebounds and three steals and Brooklin Clark, who hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer and added two rebounds and two steals.

“It wasn’t the result we would have hoped to end on, especially for the seniors, but we plan to continue building off of this base in the future,” May said.