Lady Cowboys Edge Past Lady Warriors

The North Gem Lady Cowboys played their home opener last week prior to the Thanksgiving break.  In that game North Gem hosted conference foe Watersprings Christian.  Over the past two seasons the Lady Cowboys have held an advantage over the Lady Warriors.  North Gem has not lost to Watersprings since February of 2023.  Despite having won the last five matchups with the Warriors it hasn’t been easy for the Lady Cowboys.  The two teams last met in last year’s district tournament in what was a very low scoring affair.  In that game North Gem came out on top by the score of nineteen to seventeen. 

In last week’s game in Bancroft things once again got off to a slow start.  Both teams began playing like it was the first game of the season with everyone showing some rust.  Turnovers and jump balls plagued the first quarter of play that saw very little scoring.  As the first quarter came to a close the game was tied at just four points a piece.  The pace began to pick up in the second quarter of play and so did the scoring.  The Lady Warriors put up nine points in the second quarter with seven of those points coming from one girl.  The Lady Cowboys spread out their scoring with the Rindlisbaker sisters each picking up baskets along with sophomore standout Carlie Hatch.  When the halftime buzzer sounded North Gem found themselves trailing by a single point.  In the third quarter of play the scoring continued for both teams with each team having their highest output of the game.  Thanks in large part to six points from Hatch the Lady Cowboys were able regrab the lead but once again it was just a slim one point margin.  With just one quarter of play left in a very close game things tightened back up and the scoring dropped off.  With neither team able to gain an advantage the quarter came to a close with just four points being scored by each team.  The Lady Cowboys escaped with a one point victory over the Lady Warriors.  Each team had one player go to the foul line in the final period of play with the opportunity to win the game for their team.  Neither team’s player was able to hit either one of their foul shots.  Foul shooting is one area where the Lady Cowboys need to improve on.  For the game North Gem made just one out of nine foul shots.

This week the Lady Cowboys faced Alturas Prep on Tuesday and will travel to Grace Lutheran on Friday.  Check out next week’s edition to see how those games turned out.  

Cowboys 4 8 12 4 28

Warriors 4 9 10 4 27

M. Rindlisbaker 2, O. Rindlisbaker 4, M. O’Brien 2, S. Thompson 3, D. Frandsen 2,
K. Olenslager 4, C. Hatch 11