Disastrous second quarter leads to Lady Cats’ defeat

WAELDER — Even after keeping the game tight going down 15-7 in the first, the visiting Prairie Lea Arrows just could not be stopped as they rolled in the second quarter, outscoring the Lady Cats 26-11 and ultimately beating Waelder 71-38 in the process.

“They’ve got an awesome player in #12 [Lindsey Demetriou],” head coach Carrie York said. “It didn’t matter who I put on her, we couldn’t keep up with her and that’s just what you deal with sometimes. We kind of got sluggish there towards the end of the second quarter, so [that] had a lot to do with it.”

Meanwhile, the Arrows came in with a strategy to double team Malorie Puente or Bri Montgomery when Puente was off the court. The strategy seemed to work as the Lady Cats had a tough time getting points through.

One of the bright spots, however, was when Waelder did finally get an opening, it was through taking advantage of an open shooter as Ashlyn Noyola came in and scored three threes.

“We had to have some girls step up that don’t usually provide much offense for us,” York said. “Ashlyn Noyola definitely came in and shot three threes. Fatima Torres, she contributed. Those are two girls that kind of helped us out considering Malorie was being double teamed and Bri was having an off night.”

After going down 41-18 in the second, the Lady Cats tried to cut into the lead but Demetriou was too much, grabbing multiple steals and scoring on fast breaks to extend Prairie Lea’s lead to 58-29. The final quarter was much of the same as the Arrows outscored the Lady Cats 13-9 to win by 33.

Demetriou ended the night with 37 points.

Even with the loss, the 38-point total is a mark that Waelder has had a tough time reaching.

“We definitely improve every game. The last time we played them I think we didn’t score as much so this time we scored a lot more than we did this time,” York noted. “The girls are working hard. It’s getting towards the end of the season, you know, they’re tired, but they come out every game and they work to the best of their ability and that’s all I can ask of them.”

The Lady Cats travel to take on Prairie Lea Premier Learning Academy with tipoff set for 6 p.m.