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THERMOPOLIS — It was a defensive basketball game between the Hot Springs County Lady Bobcats and the Worland Lady Warriors and the contest needed overtime to be decided. The Lady Bobcats were able to make enough plays with the extra time to pull out a 53-48 victory over the Lady Warriors Thursday night at Hot Springs County High School.

“For turning it over as many times as we did, losing the three starters, I was just tickled that we pulled it out. I’ve coached a lot of years and I told them that this was one of the best team wins I’ve been a part of,” said HSCHS girls basketball coach Cory Sova.

The win gives the Lady Bobcats (6-6) an early 1-0 lead in the 3A East-West division standings. While the Lady Warriors had the height advantage, the Lady ‘Cats scrapped their way for every rebound or loose ball.

“We’d like to be a man-to-man team but we just can’t win those individual matchups. So we have to do it as a group and it’s our way of neutralizing the other team. We had a hard time with [Saige] Jones all night, she was good around the basket. [BreAnna] Parra fouling out helped out a bunch because it took out their aggressiveness a bit because they weren’t able to press us as hard. Their girls played really, really hard,” said Sova.

After trailing 8-5 after the first quarter, the Lady Warriors began to wrestle control of the game from the Lady ‘Cats using a 17-10 second quarter to head into halftime with a 22-18 lead.

Using their size down low the Lady Warriors were able to feed the ball to senior Saige Jones (19 points, 11 rebounds) but just as it looked like they were close to putting the game away, Thermopolis put a stop to that.

“We couldn’t get stops defensively like we normally have been. Giving them [Hot Springs County] the 50s and we’re just not going to be able to score in the 50s consistently. Give them credit they played really well and were really tough.

“We just haven’t been able to finish like we needed to. I did think we were better tonight, I thought Saige and McKenna [Butte] rebounded, and really as a group we rebounded well. We controlled the defensive rebounds but we had too many fouls and they made 26 free throws. It’s going to be hard to win like that and you have to give them credit because they shot very well,” said WHS girls basketball coach Ben Hofmann.

Free throws were a major factor in Thursday night’s game, the Lady ‘Cats went 26 of 38 from the free-throw line while the Lady Warriors attempted 26 free throws, making 15.

The Lady ‘Cats had three starters foul out, first was sophomore sharpshooter Ashley McPhie with 2:59 left in regulation. Then with a minute left in the game sophomore big Sesi Jensen fouled out. And to top it off with 3:56 left in OT senior guard Haley McDermott fouled out.

Yet, the Lady ‘Cats still found a way to make it work, like when sophomore guard Aspen Jensen, who entered the game after McPhie fouled out, hit a big 3-pointer to tie things up at 38-all with 2:48 left. Then in overtime Jensen, with McDermott out, drove to the basket on back-to-back possessions, drew a pair of fouls and knocked down all four free throws.

“We talked about the progression of the game and how things that hurt us along the way but how we were able to keep us in it. Then trying to build up the girls that stepped in, like when McPhie fouled out we lost a shooter so someone has to step-up, next person out. Aspen comes in and does a great job.

“Next person we lose is Sesi [Jensen], Kaylee DeVries goes in and struggles for a bit but as soon as she gets her feet under her she does a great job rebounding for us. Then we lose Haley, and it’s like for crying out loud, so we bring in Dani Jo Pebbles who has very little varsity experience and did a decent job for us. She didn’t score but did the other things we needed her to do,” said Sova.

For the Lady Warriors they will need to quickly regroup as they host the Rawlins Lady Outlaws at 5:30 p.m. at Worland High School.

“Get some rest and let’s go get them tomorrow. We need a short-term memory, kind of like a closer in baseball if you give up a game-winning home run, you have to come back the next day ready to go. We have to get defensive stops and hopefully, we’ll be tougher tomorrow,” said Hofmann.

The Lady ‘Cats travel to Buffalo today and tipoff against the Lady Bison at 5:30 p.m.