Haxtun Lady Bulldogs advance to post-season; hold 7-12 record

The regular season has come to a close and the Lady Bulldogs advanced to post-season play. The conclusion of the regular season came in Yuma Friday night Haxtun competed with the 2A Lady Indians. Despite a late-game run, the Lady Bulldogs fell, 47-26.

"The game against Yuma was a tough one for us," said Head Coach Arlan Scholl. "We have been playing very well at this point of the season and then we just struggled to get any shots to fall in this game. It is a difficult place to play with the noise and lighting and we just did not match up very well against them. I still feel like we have improved by leaps and bounds since the first of the season."

The Lady Indians went up by 14 in front of their home crowd Friday night and added another nine before half time to hold onto a 26-7 advantage at the half.

Haxtun added seven points to the score in the third, just two less than their opponent, and 12 in the fourth but ended up suffering a 21-point loss to close out the regular season.

Stats on MaxPreps lists sophomore Allie Thompson and junior Bella Tori as top scorers for the night; both adding 10 points to their team's score. Thompson connected with five, two-point shots while Tori sank four, two-pointers and made good on two of five free throws.

Under the basket, senior Brooklyn Davis and Thompson led in rebounds with seven apiece; both ladies pulled down three boards on offense and four on defense. Thompson also had two assists. Sophomore Taylor Schram led in steals with six.

"This team has matured and learned to handle other teams' pressure when being pressed and we have learned how to take care of the ball and limit our turnovers," Scholl said at the end of the regular season. "We continue to practice and work hard on our shooting skills and I know that we will improve with time and practice. We all look forward to competing well in the post season and would expect to continue improving our play and winning some games."

An overall 7-12 record and 3-5 in league play gives the Lady Bulldogs the number three spot in 1A District 5 basketball action.

The team was set to compete against Arickaree/Woodlin, who entered as number six, on Tuesday night, Feb. 25 in Idalia. Results of that contest were not available as of press time.

If the Lady Bulldogs won on Tuesday night, they will advance to play on Friday, Feb. 28 in Wray at 4 p.m. against the winner of Idalia and Bethune. The winner of that contest advances to play on Saturday afternoon.