Lady Knights, Trojans wear down Cougars
By Rex Overholser

The Lady Cougars traveled to Lafayette Central Catholic with a chance to win their first conference game and mess up the Lady Knights' plans for a first-ever conference title on Thursday night. The pre-game warm-ups and the Junior Varsity game gave a glimpse of how the Lady Cougars were going to play. The team looked distracted and unfocused and the result was an unemotional effort that resulted in a 44-30 loss. The 10-6 Knights celebrated at the end of the game with a perfect 5-0 record and a Hoosier Heartland Conference title.

On Saturday, the Lady Cougars played host to Tri Central for their seniors' final home game. That game, too, ended in a loss for the Cougars.

Game highlight against Central Catholic for the Cougars was the first 8 minutes of play which saw senior Sarah Brown have her best quarter of her high school career with 8 points and aggressive overall play. Brown went on to lead the team with 7 rebounds and 10 points, followed with solid efforts by Krystal Brazel with 9 points on two 3-point shots.

The game summary can be described with a great effort in the first quarter by Brown contributing to a small lead of 13- 9 by the Knights. The second quarter saw the Cougars not score until 1:30 left in the stanza and the Knights hitting their shots and completely controlling the boards. The Cougars fell into the high turnover category and then succumbed to the shooting of Katie Pechin, who led the Knights with 19 points. The result was a lop-sided score of 31-15 at halftime which was never challenged as the game was over at the end of the first quarter.

The (6-5) Junior Varsity normally shows a good effort but they never got untracked. They dug a big hole and ended with an embarrassing 40-20 loss that left them looking for answers. Lucy Zook with 6 points and Sarah Griffin with 5 led the junior version.

Vs. Tri Central

Brown, Courtney Hall, Ashley Miller, and Hanna Peden, said career goodbyes to the Carroll fans. along with statistician Lydia Hedde and team manager Robin Guise.

The Cougars played Tri Central with its deep program coming to Flora. The Lady Trojans were Carroll's second conference foe and the (9-9) visitors went home with a 3-2 Hoosier Heartland Conference record. The Cougars fell to a (6- 10) record, 0-4 in the HHC.

This game showed a truly inspired effort by the Lady Cougars with Abby Reinke leading the team with 14 points and Brazel with 10. Morgan Yoder led the team with 8 rebounds and 8 points. Hall, with 6 points, played the best game of her career and Brown finished with 2 points and added 7 productive rebounds.

The game recap showed the Cougars claw their way to a well played, intense first half of basketball with Tri Central up 22-20. The Cougars played with spunk and moved the ball well without turning it over. The second half saw the Lady Trojans come out of the gate quickly with an 8-point burst to take control of the game in the third quarter with the Cougars only managing 4 points and the deep Trojans getting 22 points.

The final quarter saw Amber Suiters (12) and Sally Adams (10) take over to lead the Trojans to the 50-40 win over Carroll. With hustle and quality shooting, Reinke helped to get the Cougars closer with 4 baskets in the final 2 minutes.

The Lady Cougars' JV team (7-5) got back into the winners category with a 25-17 victory. They were led by Zook with 6 points and Molly Craig with 5. The Cougars finally broke the game open in the final 3 minutes with some quality free throw shooting.

The Cougars travel to Lewis Cass on Thursday for a rivalry game that starts with a 6 p.m. JV tip-off and then travel to final conference foe, Rossville, for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday.