Lady Cowboys Fight To The End

The North Gem Lady Cowboys basketball team was eliminated from the district tournament last Saturday but showed plenty of grit in their three games last week.

The Lady Cowboys began the week hosting American Heritage in a play-in game.  The Lady Cowboys had just beaten the Lady Patriots the Friday before and needed to pull off the very difficult task of beating a team in back to back games to extend their season.  The Lady Cowboys grabbed the early lead in this one and never looked back.  They led by just three at the end of the first quarter and clung to that narrow margin at the halftime break.  In the third quarter of the play-in game the Lady Cowboys opened it taking that three point lead and turning into a fourteen point lead.  The big third quarter was enough to boost the Lady Cowboys to the victory and earn them a spot in the district tournament.

The Lady Cowboys and their fans were thrilled with the win and were excited for the opportunity to continue their season.  The excitement however was short lived when the reality of their reward set in.  The play-in win earned the Lady Cowboys a date with top seeded Mackay in Mackay.  The Lady Miners dominated the conference this season going undefeated in conference play.  In fact the Lady Miners only lost two games all season both to a very good 2A Butte County team.  Needless to say it would be nothing short of a miracle if the Lady Cowboys were able to pull off that win.  Unfortunately no miracle came for the North Gem Ladies and they fell to the Miners by a substantial margin.

The loss to Mackay sent the Lady Cowboys to a win or go home game against Taylors Crossing.  That game took place on Saturday at Taylors Crossing.  In their one meeting during the regular season the Lady Eagles had easily defeated the Lady Cowboy in Bancroft.  The Lady Cowboys were hoping that this time around would go differently but it was not to be.  North Gem had trouble scoring early on and quickly found themselves down by double digits at the end of the first quarter.  The Lady Cowboys were able to start clicking a little after that but it was far too little too late.  Despite their improved scoring in the subsequent quarters they could not make up the large early deficit.  With the loss the Lady Cowboys were eliminated from the tournament and saw their season come to an end.  The Lady Cowboys will lose some great leadership from their senior players but will retain some of their leading scorers for next season.  The Lady Cowboys should be proud of their resilience as they continued to play hard and compete right to the very end.

Cowboys  7 7 17 18 49

Patriots 4 7 6 16 32

G. Christensen 5, M. Rindlisbaker 8, S. Daniels 4, O. Rindlisbaker 8, I. Hatch 2, C. O’Brien 2, M. O’Brien 3, S. Thompson 2, D. Frandsen 1, M. Barnes 2, K. Olenslager 1, C. Hatch 11

Cowboys 5 8 11 11 35

Eagles 21 13 10 17 61

G. Christensen 4, O. Rindlisbaker 12, S. Daniels 3, I. Hatch 2, M. O’Brien 2, D. Frandsen 2, C. Hatch 7