Lovell cagers split at Cody Tuesday

The Lovell High School girls and boys basketball squads opened 3A West Conference play Tuesday night in Cody, with mixed results.

Top-ranked Cody clobbered the Lady Bulldogs 82-46, but the Lovell boys stopped the Broncs 63-43.

Cody jumped out to a 26-12 lead by the end of the first quarter in the girls game, then edged the Lady Bulldogs 19-16 in the second to lead 45-28 at halftime. The Fillies also won the second half 37-18 to win by 36 points.

Junior Brooklin Clark led the Lady Bulldogs with 11 points, and freshman Morgan Harshman joined her in double figures with 10. Ali Walker added 9 points, Kandace Asay 7, Avery Walker 5, Macie Anderson 2 and Jenna Hessenthaler 1.

“I thought we did some good things,” head coach Brian May said. “At the beginning the press hurt us, and then they backed off of that. And their offensive rebounding (hurt). We just really struggled boxing them out. They’d get two or three rebounds on the offensive end and score. You just can’t give up that many offensive rebounds. And (Grace) Hays is just tough (29 points). She takes it to the basket hard, and defensively she’s long and lengthy and causes problems.”

May said his team scored about as well as any team has against Cody this season.

“We did OK getting some points on the board, but defensively, we just kind of ran out of gas. It seemed like we just weren’t rotating very well and moving our feet, and they got out in transition a little bit, too, and that hurt us. And the offensive rebounds were big for them. We did have some turnovers in a stretch, but I thought for the most part we did an OK job of breaking their press. It wasn’t turnover after turnover after turnover.”

The Lady Bulldogs will compete at the Big Horn Basin Classic in Powell and Cowley this weekend. Friday in Powell, Lovell will meet Thermopolis at noon (JVs at 10:30 a.m.) and Greybull at 4:30 p.m. (JVs at 3).

Saturday will find the Lady Bulldogs in Cowley against Wyoming Indian at 11 a.m., followed by a return to Powell for a 2 p.m. contest against Burlington (JVs at 1:15).

Lovell boys

The top-ranked Lovell Bulldogs improved their season record to 7-1 with a strong win over Cody Tuesday night, 63-43.

Lovell led 16-13 after a hard-fought first quarter, then dominated the second 17-5 to lead 33-17 at halftime. Cody won the third quarter 12-9, but Lovell came back in the fourth 21-13 to win by 20.

All five Lovell starters scored in double figures. Owen Edwards led the team with 15 points, and Owen Walker scored 14, Kaeson Anderson 13, Kyle Wilson 11 and Matthew Newman 10.

Now 7-1, the Bulldogs will travel to Thermopolis and Worland this weekend for the annual Big Horn Basin Classic. Friday in Thermop, Lovell will meet 11-1 and top-ranked Wyoming Indian at 1:30 p.m. (JVs at noon) and second-ranked Thermopolis at 7:30 p.m. (JVs at 4:30).

Saturday in Worland, the Bulldogs will battle Burlington at 9:30 a.m. and Greybull at 2 p.m. (JVs at 12:30).

Coach Shane Durtsche said Friday will be a challenging day for the Bulldogs, meeting the top two teams in Class 2A. He said Wyoming Indian will run and press the Bulldogs, and Thermop is a very solid team that “got us at their place last year.”

“They’re the top two teams, and I think rightfully so,” he said. “I truly think they are, and then I think there’s a little gap between them and everybody else. So that’s a very challenging day for us that Friday, but it’s good for us. Those are the games you want.”