Photo by Michael Ben
The Woodland Cougar girls spent Friday night strongly defending the basketball from the Pawnee Black Bears, but could not buy a basket. During the first period the defense challenged every shot from the Black Bears who live and die by the 3-pointer. Woodland could not get anything to fall though. For the Cougar’s nine steals, they turned the ball over 28 times, giving their opponent more opportunities to score. Woodland was able to pull out 35 rebounds against the Black Bears before falling 62-23.
The Cougar boys had a little more success in clawing it out against Pawnee. It was a close game that ended in a two-point loss for Woodland, 53-51.
Tuesday night the Cougars took on another strong 3-point team, Copan, and will followed by Tonkawa Friday.
First year Coach Teresa Bledsoe has changed her starting five in the last two games with only a few games left before the opening districts tip-off. Hoping to find the right combination the young Cougars are still without 3-point junior sharpshooter Katie Barnhart (5), who has shown “moments of greatness” but struggles to play four quarters of solid basketball.
Freshman starters Raylee Connor (15) and Sarah Ben (23) have improved tremendously since the start of the season, according to Coach Bledsoe. Junior Breanna Vandaveer (33) along with sophomore teammates Kaylee Burch (12) and Alexis Mashburn (21) have seen plenty of playing time. This could spell trouble for Olive and Glencoe coming up in the District finals.
Some say that if the Lady Cougars can improve their shooting percentage, and keep their tough defense, Woodland could walk away with the district championship.
Coach Bledsoe hopes for a solid performance in the next 14 days from her team before going to Olive for the District Championship.
By Michael Ben
