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Home  News Latest Turnovers prove fatal for Cowgirls at State
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Turnovers prove fatal for Cowgirls at State |
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Wednesday, 07 March 2007 |
Conrad opened up a run for a state title with Missoula Loyola on Thursday in Hamilton but fell short.
The sixth ranked Cowgirls with a 20-4 record were hoping to stop a 52 game win streak by Loyola.
Conrad started out with a 2-0 lead right away but after that Sacred Heart went on a 15-6 run with the Cowgirls going 1-7 from the field.
Both teams struggled in the second period, with each squad putting up eight points and Loyola maintaining a 23-14 lead.
After the intermission Amber Keil kick started the Cowgirl offense with a three pointer. Courtney Ellefsen hit a short shot, then hit again and was fouled and completed the three-point play.
Katie Schlepp scored her first point of the evening from the line and added a bucket with Julie Brown getting a lay up, and all of sudden with a 21-14 run, the Cowgirls were within two points, 35-37, heading to the final eight minutes.
With a little over six minutes to go, the Cowgirls were still only two points down, 40-38, but Loyola came on to outscore the Cowgirls 10-2 down the stretch. Brown popped home the final bucket of the night, but it was Loyola taking the opening contest 52-43 and putting another notch in their win streak at 53.
 CONNECTING -- Cowgirl senior Julie Brown makes a shot over Loyola’s Caitlin Hall for two of her 11 points in the first game of the tournament. Photo for the I-O by Jean Schuman-Bitteroot Star
Schlepp, Serena Johnson and Keil all pumped in six points.
The Cowgirls had some trouble handling the ball; they had five steals on the night while Loyola doubled that with 10. Conrad also had 18 turnovers to 10 for Loyola.
Loyola got 13 points off of turnovers to just three for the Cowgirls. They also had six points off the bench while the Cowgirls didn’t get any.
Conrad scored on 15-44 shots from the floor for 34 percent shooting and went 10-17 at the line for 46 percent shooting.
Loyola hit on 21-53 shots from the field for 39 percent and were 6-13 from the stripe for 46 percent,
The loss put Conrad into loser out action with Big Timber in the 2 p.m. contest on Friday.
The game was a tale of two contests. The first half was all Conrad as the Cowgirls constructed a 32-22 lead and looked to be in command as they hustled off to the locker room at the intermission.
But the second half belonged to Big Timber who outscored Conrad 39-20 to pull out a 61-52 victory and put an abrupt close to the Cowgirls season.
Ellefsen pulled out one more double-double game to end her career at CHS. She canned 17 markers and pulled down 11 rebounds. Brown banged in 10 scores off the window and with nine boards was just one short of a double-double game as well. She also dished out a pair of assists and had two steals.
Keil, also a senior, clipped the nets and tallied nine points, all-coming from beyond the three-point arch. Johns, another senior, tallied eight points, matched that number with rebounds and dished out four assists.
Schlepp was right behind with seven points and a pair of steals and in limited playing time Peters went 1-2 from the line to round out the scoring.
Conrad out rebounded Big Timber, 34-25 but still had trouble with ball control, turning it over 17 times to 13 and getting doubled up in steals 14-7.
Big Timber got 24 points off of turnovers to seven for Conrad. The Cowgirls were 41 percent from the field on 19-46 shooting and went 10-21 at the line. The Herders hit on 25-47 shots and shot almost 60 percent from the field in the second half, and were 10-18 at the line in the come from behind win.
The Cowgirls, nevertheless, put together a fine overall season, going 20-5 for the year.
Malta came on to down Shepherd to capture the Class B championship. |
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