Lady Bulldogs notch huge league win over Caliche Friday night

The Haxtun Lady Bulldogs notched a huge league win over Caliche at home Friday night. The win gives the team seven total on the season as the final few weeks of regular season play winds down. In the next few weeks, Haxtun is set to face Akron and Merino, both league match ups, before post season play is set to start.

For the second time this season, the Lady Bulldogs matched up with the Lady Buffs from Caliche on the hardwood. This time was much different than the first as Haxtun came out on fire with 18 points in the first quarter. That number is double what they scored in the whole first half in the two team's first match up, which came in mid-December. The Lady Bulldogs added another 12 to their score to hold a 30-16 advantage at half time.

Caliche had their best showing in the third, putting 21 points on the board but the Bulldogs were ready to battle for the league win. Haxtun and Caliche matched 16 points in the fourth and the Lady Bulldogs edged out a two point, 55-53 win over the Lady Buffs for their seventh victory this season.

We just continue to grind it out - game after game, minute after minute. The girls never get down, they just continue to push," said Alicia Schram, Lady Bulldogs Head Coach. "We continue to work on the little things that creep up - the turnovers, the held balls and the fouls. We started the Caliche game off so hot. Everything clicked and we were firing on all cylinders. The second half, Caliche came out hot. We battled until the final buzzer. It was great to see the girls pull that one out. It was very important win for us as a loss to Caliche could've drastically affected postseason opportunities.

Cassidy Goddard had a stellar performance against the Buffs. The junior starter totaled 24 points while pulling down 22 rebounds. Goddard hit 11 baskets under the net and made two free throws. She registered 12 rebounds on offense and 10 on defense for her total of 22.

Sophomore Bobbi Starkebaum added 12 points for the Lady Bulldogs followed by Emily Anderson with nine. Starkebaum pulled down 11 rebounds while Anderson brought down eight. Sophomore Kelsie Hadeen tallied four assists. Anderson led in steals with three.

The following night, Haxtun hosted Wray for a match up with the Lady Eagles. Despite a close match up throughout the first half, the Lady Eagles ran away with a 43-24 win over the Lady Bulldogs.

For the second night, Goddard led her team on offense with 10 points. She netted four shots under the basket and connected with two shots from the charity stripe. Starkebaum registered eight points against the Eagles.

Under the basket, Starkebaum led the team in rebounds with a total of 13. She pulled down six on defense and seven on offense. Goddard registered 10 rebounds in the contest. Heily Avery tallied three steals.

"Game prep last week was horrendous. There isn't enough time in the day and definitely not enough gym space to have a week like last week with three huge games," Schram said. "We had one day of normal practice last week ... one. We didn't have enough time to run through offenses or defenses, let alone have enough time to get shooting practice in. We prep the best we can with the space and time that's available.

This week the Lady Bulldogs are set to travel to Akron to take on the Lady Rams. According to MaxPreps, Akron is 9-6 overall this season with a recent loss to Merino and wins over Fleming and Perkins County.

"We have our sights set on the postseason so we will continue to battle. Akron is a tough place to play, but we will give it our best shot!" said Schram.