Lady Warriors post 15 steals, but fall short to defending state champs’ Kirby in conf. hoops
KIRBY — The Ouachita Lady Warriors battled in their first road contest of the new year last Thursday against the defending Class 1A state champions and ranked Kirby Lady Trojans in a tough—competitive senior high girls basketball encounter for 1A-7 league play .
The Lady Warriors went into the contest with a challenging approach and effort by aiming to overcome the home-court advantage, but the Lady Trojans’ spark stood out productive— resulting Ouachita suffering a 13-point defeat to reigning state champs’ Kirby, 53-40.
Senior Lizzy Rowton led the scoring department for the Lady Warriors displaying a 15 point, five assists, three steals and two rebound performance as the lone player in double-figures. Also senior Linsey Sirratt and Gabby Buras were just one point shy from posting in double-figures and dropped nine points apiece. Sirratt snatched four rebounds, with three steals while Buras grabbed four boards off the glass to lead Ouachita in rebounding.
Emma Williams contributed five points and dished out five assists and had four steals for Ouachita. Senior guard Tessa Kuykendall added two points with a steal and an assist. The Lady Warriors totaled for 15 steals defensively and offensively knocked down five triples—3-pointers from downtown beyond the arc.
Senior Aileen Ables contributed productively defensively with two steals and Lauren Daniell had one steal to provide the spunk for the Lady Warriors against the reigning state champs.
Ouachita Lady Warriors basketball head coach Corey Brown observed productive play throughout his teams performance, but Kirby capitalized on key opportunities that led to victory for the Lady Trojans.
Brown knew the stage and the environment would be electric due to the Lady Warriors facing the reigning state champs. Despite a championship atmosphere in the gymnasium, the Lady Warriors kept a tight edge, but had tough spurts disrupting the offensive production by the Lady Trojans’ spark.
“We just couldn’t get in the right spot on defense, we weren’t rotating well, the spot light got us,” Brown said.
A few costly turnovers early in the first half action slowed down Ouachita’s execution offensively.
Brown said the Ouachita got off to a slow start and held a 10-point deficit at the end of the first quarter to Kirby, 17-7.
In the second quarter the situation didn’t change much Brown mentioned. Kirby outscored Ouachita 17-7. At the break, the Lady Warriors headed into the locker room with a 33-14 deficit to Kirby.
During halftime, Brown used the time with his team to regroup and provide enthusiasm and confidence to bring the fight to Kirby and keep a competitive mentality for a better overall second half performance.
Brown noted when addressing the team during halftime he said, “I know we can hang with them, quit being nervous and play your game. When the final buzzer sounds if we are down so be it but until then I still believe we can win.”
In the third quarter Kirby extended their margin to a 22-point advantage and Brown mentioned the Lady Warriors created a spark and went on a 9-0 run to come within 13 points going into the fourth period. “The 9-0 run sparked by good defense and a couple of [Linsey] Sirratt 3-pointers.”
Kirby led Ouachita 44-31 at the start of the fourth period. Brown noted the Lady Warriors melted down their deficit to under double-digits to trail by only seven points with three minutes remaining left to play.
He also mentioned Ouachita missed a few buckets from the field along with three costly turnovers that changed their momentum— which led to Kirby’s victory.
The Lady Warriors fall to 14-3 overall but remain with a plus .500 team record. Brown knows these types of games will help Ouachita down the road in order return as a state tournament qualifier for postseason play. While battling the top-dawgs in Class 1A—Kirby, Brown believes the experience can build confidence to become an elite caliber force in senior high girls basketball for Class 1A.
“I was very frustrated with our stage fright in the first half but extremely proud of our effort and fight in the second half. We have a few things to clean up but I’m confident in our team moving forward.”