The Lady Cougars take part in Medford Invitational Tournament
After falling to Drummond 68-30 on the opening day of the Medford Invitational Tournament, the Aline-Cleo Lady Cougars rebounded on the second day to defeat DCLA 45-15.
With the 1-1 start to the tournament, the Lady Cougars were set to face off with Felt for the consolation championship on the tournament’s final day.
The Lady Bulldogs controlled the opening tip, but a basket by Ashlei Cosper put the Lady Cougars out front first. Following a Felt basket, Alexus Naugle drew a foul and was sent to the charity stripe to shoot a pair of free throws. She went 1-2 to give the lead back to the Lady Cougars.
Felt then went on a 0-3 run following a made basket and going 1-2 at the charity stripe. With just four seconds left in the first quarter, Peyton Rauch slashed her way to the basket and got her shot to fall. As the first quarter drew to a close, both teams were knotted at 5-5.
Possession arrow favored Aline-Cleo to open the second quarter and Naugle quickly found her way back at the free throw line. She went 1-2 to give the lead back to Aline-Cleo. Rauch then netted a basket to give the Lady Cougars their biggest lead of the game at 8-5.
From there, Felt heated up as they went on a 0-7 run to take the lead at 8-12 with just under five minutes left to play in the first half. Baskets by Naugle and Rauch brought the curtain down on the first half of action with teams remaining deadlocked at 12-12.
Felt opened the third quarter with a bang as they controlled the ball to start the quarter and proceeded to bury back-to-back three pointers.
Rauch found an answer on the other end for the Lady Cougars before the Lady Bulldogs answered right back with a basket of their own.
Naugle tossed in a basket with 2:41 left in the quarter to leave the score at 16-20. On their next possession, Felt landed their three pointer of the quarter before Leah Ramey scored the final basket for either team in the quarter.
Going into the final quarter of action, Aline-Cleo trailed 18-23.
Felt had the ball first in the quarter and just as they did in the third quarter, they began the quarter with back-to-back triples. Ramey found an answer on the other end for Aline-Cleo, only to see the Lady Bulldogs go on a 0-4 run to increase their lead to 13 at 20-33.
Naugle tossed in a pair of free throws. Another 0-4 run by Felt was ended with a basket from Naugle and the score stood at 24-37 with 3:13 left to play.
The Lady Bulldogs went 2-4 on back-to-back trips to the free throw line before Myah Cunningham added her first basket of the contest.
After a basket by Felt, Hayleigh Noble closed out the scoring with a layup as the Lady Cougars came up short 28-41.
Due to a lack of players, the boys did not play in the tournament.