Central Oregonian

CCHS falls to Madras and Sisters

Shooting woes prove costly as Cowgirls drop weekend games

RAMONA MCCALLISTER/CENTRAL OREGONIAN

Kimmer Severance made her high school debut on Friday in the Cowgirls loss to the Madras White Buffaloes. Severance led the Cowgirls in scoring with 22 points as the White Buffaloes earned a 58-48 victory

Lon Austin

December 06, 2012

It was not the way that the Crook County Cowgirls hoped to open the 2012-2013 basketball season.

After finishing with a 14-12 record a year ago and reaching the playoffs each of the last two seasons, the team had hoped to start the season right where they left off a year ago.

Instead, they struggled with their shooting touch as the Cowgirls fell, 58-47, to the Madras White Buffaloes and, 57-33, to the Sisters Outlaws on the opening weekend of the season.

“The biggest thing right now is that we are struggling offensively in a big way,” said head coach Dave Johnson. “We are a younger team as far as varsity minutes. We only have four kids with much varsity experience so there are going to be growing pains.”

The Cowgirls got off to slow starts each night falling behind by double-digits in the first quarter of both contests. Once they were behind, the Cowgirls were unable to close the gap. Nonetheless, Johnson did see some positives.

“Our defense at times has been really good,” he said. “Our kids are hustling and working hard on defense and there were times when the full-court press looked really good.”

The Cowgirls couldn’t buy a basket in the first half of Friday’s game with Madras. The team fell behind 13-3 at the end of the first period and trailed 24-13 at the half.

The team still struggled in the third quarter as Madras opened up a 42-23 lead by the end of the period. However, Crook County didn’t quit. They finally found their shooting range in the fourth quarter, exploding for 25 points in the period to make the final score respectable.

Freshman Kimmer Severance did most of the damage for the Cowgirls, finishing with 22 points. Jessie Maley-Loper and Kelsie Smith also had solid offensive outings, finishing with nine and seven points respectively.

The White Buffaloes’ Mariah Stacona led all scorers with 27 points.

Saturday night, at Sisters, the Cowgirls offensive woes continued. The team fell behind 16-4 by the end of the first period and was unable to recover. Crook County made a brief run in the second quarter, but Sisters pulled away again late in the period and took a 30-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The second half was more of the same as the Cowgirls were unable to cut into the Outlaw lead.

“We shot 12 percent from the floor,” Johnson said. “We had 10-12 steals, but were not able to finish off our scoring opportunities. We only made seven total field goals. If we shoot 35 percent, we win that ball game.”

No individual statistics were available from the Sisters contest.

Crook County is back in action today when they face Ontario at 3 p.m., in the Burns Invitational Tournament.

“We have the ability,” Johnson said. “It’s just about coming together. Once we gel as a team, I think we are going to be pretty good.”