Two big wins: Lady Bulldogs punch their ticket to State

For the first time since 2018, the Lovell Lady Bulldogs have qualified for the state basketball tournament, winning two games as hosts of the Class 3A West Regional Tournament to earn their trip to Casper.

Coming in as the fifth seed, the Lady Bulldogs fell to No. 4 seed Powell 46-35 Thursday afternoon, then eliminated eighth seed Mountain View Friday morning, 55-23. Battling sixth seed Worland Saturday morning, the Lady Bulldogs trailed big in the first half, then put together a furious rally to overcome the Warriors 44-36 and punch their ticket to State. They fell to Pinedale in the third-place game later that day, 48-25.

“We set a goal this year to make it to State, and it’s just great to see that happen,” head coach Brian May said. “It just comes from a group of girls believing and fighting for it and improving, competing hard and spending time in the summer to improve their basketball skills. We had a lot of girls do that.”

Powell 46, Lovell 35

Lovell led rival Powell 5-1 early at Johnny Winterholler Gym Thursday as senior Becca Nichols found junior Hannity Felkins inside for a bank shot, Nichols hit one of two at the free throw line and Avery Walker drove for a basket.

And then Powell’s guards went on a tear. The talented duo of Emery Hernandez and Coy Erickson led a 17-5 run with Erickson scoring 11 points, including three three-pointers and Hernandez 10 as Powell led 18-10 early in the second quarter. Lovell countered with an 11-0 run of their own to take a 21-18 lead before Hernandez splashed a trey that tied the score 21-21 at halftime.

A power follow shot by Brooklin Clark, a move and jumper by Avery Walker and an up-and-under move by Felkins gave Lovell a 29-27 lead midway through the third quarter, but Powell outscored the home team 6-2 down the stretch to lead 33-31 after three.

“We played really well for the first two or three quarters, and then we had a hard time scoring and defending some of their screens and three-point shooters,” May said. “We kind of struggle with teams that have all-state players. There’s just some skill sets those players have that work against us sometimes, as far as guarding and having kids on our team being able to score and hit shots.”

The Lady Bulldogs found a lid on the basket in the fourth quarter and could manage only four free throws in the final eight minutes as Powell won the fourth 13-4 to win 46-35. Lovell had to foul to stop the clock, and Powell hit seven of 10 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the win.

Hernandez and Erickson combined for 39 of Powell’s 46 points and scored all 13 points in the fourth as Lovell cooled off. Lovell shot 24 percent from the field to Powell’s 37 percent, and the Lady Bulldogs hit just one of 14 three-point attempts.

Morgan Harshman led Lovell with 8 points, and Clark scored 7, Avery Walker 6, Felkins 5, Kaydree Owens 3, Jenna Hessenthaler and Macie Anderson 2 each, Ali Walker 1. Clark led the team with 14 rebounds, and Avery Walker tallied five rebounds and three assists.

Lovell 55, Mountain View 23

A Friday morning elimination game was all Lovell as the Lady Bulldogs blitzed Mountain View out of the gate with an aggressive defense that totally took the Buffalos out of their offense. Lovell didn’t allow a basket for nearly the first 13 minutes of the game and led 23-1 by that time.

“We just wanted to play high energy defense, and I think our girls came out really well and executed our defensive plan, which helped us get some baskets off of those defensive pressures,” May said. “We switched off and on (man-to-man), and we have some different calls where we can call a trapping situation and things. But I just thought our girls, no matter what, we were in -- half court, full court – we were just tenacious and got after it and caused problems.”

The Lovell defense forced 18 turnovers in the first half, and the Lady Bulldogs took advantage offensively to lead 15-1 after the first quarter and 30-6 at halftime. Eight players scored for Lovell, led by Harshman with 7 points, Clark 6, Avery Walker 5 and Felkins 4. Hessenthaler also drilled a three-pointer.

The Lady Bulldogs continued to pull away in the second half, outscoring Mountain View 12-7 in the third quarter and 13-10 in the fourth.

“Everybody that went in, I thought, did a good job,” May said. “We got to play a lot of kids in that game, which was fun. I think they all ended up getting some minutes. So those are important things for the future that they get experience.”

In a reversal of fortunes from the Powell game, the Lady Bulldogs shot 38 percent from the field compared to Mountain View’s 19 percent. Lovell out-rebounded the Lady Buffs 30-15 and forced 30 turnovers.

Harshman, just a freshman, led Lovell with 16 points and seven rebounds.

“Morgan was consistent this weekend. She played hard and gave us key baskets,” May said. “She was our leading scorer in the Mountain View game. That’s  pretty impressive for a freshman to come in and do that. She’s got some improvement to do, but man, she’s not afraid. She gets in there and gets you some buckets and goes to the free throw line. She’s a good free throw shooter.”

Clark added 9 points, Owens 7 points, four rebounds and three steals, Avery Walker 5 points and three steals, Ali Walker 4 points, six boards and three assists, Felkins 4 points, five rebounds and three assists, Hessenthaler 4 points and Nichols, Kandace Asay and Ava Edwards 2 points apiece.

Lovell 44, Worland 36

The Lady Bulldogs had more turnovers than points in a remarkably sluggish first half in a loser out/state qualification game Saturday morning at Lovell Middle School, in spite of the do-or-die status of the game. Lovell trailed 13-9 after the first quarter, then struggled mightily in the second, plagued by 10 turnovers (after five in the first quarter) and were dominated physically by an aggressive Worland squad.

Lovell didn’t hit a basket in the second quarter, just five free throws, and trailed at one point 23-10 and then 23-14 at halftime.

Facing elimination for the eighth straight season, the Lady Bulldogs came out of the locker room with fire in their eyes, taking the game to the Warriors with an aggressive defense that forced eight turnovers in the third quarter and an attacking offense that was 180 degrees from the first half. Continually knocked off kilter in the first half, the Bulldogs turned the tables in the third quarter, swarming Worland players and preventing them from running their offense.

Meanwhile, the Lady Bulldogs scored inside and out. Clark, Harshman and Avery Walker scored the first three Lovell baskets of the third quarter, and Owens scored on two jumpers late, one from beyond the arc. Lovell led 31-28 after three.

Asked what he and his assistants said at halftime to fire up the players, May noted, “Well, I think you talk about your goals and things that you’re trying to reach as far as the state tournament, and maybe in a colorful way you just need to tell them to get it together and play better and have more effort, intensity, focus and energy. We’ve got to have the girls lead the way, and they were fired up coming out of the locker room. You knew that it was on once we hit the court in the third quarter. I’m just proud of their switch. I just wish they would have just done it from the get-go.”

The Lady Bulldogs continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter, outscoring Worland 10-0 to complete an 18-0 run that took them from trailing 28-23 to leading 41-28. The Bulldogs finished off the win 44-36, leaping for joy at the end with the knowledge they were heading for State. Overall, Lovell outscored Worland 34-13 from the middle of the second quarter to the end.

“In the first half, we tried to switch some defenses up, and some of our girls weren’t getting matched up in the half court. I think that that hurt us,” May explained, noting the second-half defensive turnaround against Worland leading scorer Kathya Navarro. “So one of the biggest adjustments is we just went to our full-court man pressure, and I really felt like Becca did a nice job moving her feet (against Navarro). And if there was any idea that she was going to get by us, we had other people rotating over and stopping her so she wasn’t getting to the basket. They did a good job doing that without fouling. And then for our other girls our defensive rotations on the back side of that were really good, too.”

Navarro did not score in the second half.

Playing with a painful jammed finger suffered against Mountain View, Clark led the Lady Bulldogs with 12 points on four-of-five shooting from the field.

“She’s a battler,” May said. “That (finger) didn’t stop her. She has the ability to play through a little bit of pain, and she’s been big for us. I thought she played a really great tournament.

“I thought the crowd was into it, loud and excited. And, you know, I think that helped us, having the crowd with us during that run. The gym was rocking.”

Ali Walker and Harshman added 8 points each, Owens and Avery Walker 5 apiece, Felkins 4 and Nichols 2. Harshman grabbed six rebounds, Ali Walker, Avery Walker, Felkins and Clark four apiece. Clark tallied four assists, Nichols four steals.

Pinedale 48, Lovell 25

Both Pinedale and Lovell suffered from low energy in the third-place game Saturday afternoon at Winterholler Gym, Lovell from the rally against Worland and Pinedale from a double-overtime win over Powell.

But the Lady Wranglers gained a little more spring in their step and pulled away for the 23-point win. Trailing 7-4 after the first quarter, Lovell took an 8-7 lead with buckets by Felkins and Clark inside. But Pinedale outscored Lovell 9-0 the rest of the quarter to lead 16-8 at the half.

Pinedale continued to pull away in the second half, outscoring Lovell 17-10 in the third quarter and 15-7 in the fourth to win by 23.

“They have the White (Alyxis, 15 points) and the Wilson (Erica, 13 points) girls that are really good players,” May said. “White hit a couple threes at the beginning, but going into it, we felt like we can keep this close, and I probably needed to do a better job of having them more prepared, could have switched up our defenses and tried some different things to help our girls out.”

Clark scored 10 points for the Bulldogs, Ali Walker 5, Anderson 3, Harshman, Avery Walker and Felkins 2 apiece, Hessenthaler 1. Harshman pulled down seven rebounds.

State basketball

It will be a Bulldog-Bulldog matchup in the first round of the state basketball tournament this morning (Thursday) at 10:30 a.m. when Lovell (16-10) meets Wheatland at the Ford Wyoming Center.

Fourth-ranked Wheatland (22-4) ran the table at the 3A East Regional in Buffalo, beating Rawlins 47-42, Burns 53-29 and Douglas 34-26. Lovell handed the Platte County Lady Bulldogs one of their four losses when they beat Wheatland 54-50 December 20 at the Douglas Classic.

Wheatland is led by super-scorer Lily Anderson (#23), who averages 29 points per game. Shayden Davis and Molly McGuire add around 8 points per contest each. Wheatland is second in the state behind only top-ranked Cody in scoring, averaging 56-57 points per game.

“That’s one thing that we’re going to have to deal with, to try to contain,” May said. “She can ball handle, she can take it to the basket, she can shoot threes. So we’ve got to be able to contain that. She’s had games where she’s scored 40 points.

“We’ll use our athletes to come up with a game plan defensively to slow her down and not let her be the one that gets away from us. So it’s going to be a big challenge. But I think we have the girls that have that athleticism and ability to do some things defensively with her. … In December, I think we held her to about 12.”

If Lovell beats Wheatland, they will face the winner of the Lander-Burns game Friday at Casper College at 3:30 p.m. A loss to Wheatland would drop the Lady Bulldogs into a 9 a.m. loser-out game Friday at Casper College against the Lander-Burns loser.

“It would be so fun to sneak in there and make a little noise down there,” May said. “We’ve had some girls kind of struggling shooting, but hopefully they’ll pick it up and get some confidence.”