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(ARCHIVE PHOTO | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Mattie Dollar runs past the Forestburg defense to make a shot near the net during the game Monday, Feb. 10. The team moved onto the next round Thursday, Feb. 13, where the brought another victory over the Dodd City Lady Hornets and were crowned area champions.
The Ladycats winning streak continued Thursday with a 37-28 win over the Dodd City Lady Hornets securing the area championship for Newcastle.
The two teams met Thursday, Feb. 13 at Gainesville High School and things started as they have with games in the past for the Ladycats, with them ahead.
Newcastle held Dodd City to only six points in the first quarter but were also held to 15 points from Kenzie King, Camren Mallory, Catherine Youngblood and Mattie Dollar.
“These girls are very attentive and like to win,” head coach Ryan Dollar said. “We are still learning each and every day we get together.”
Things slowed down for the Ladycats into the second quarter with both teams scoring and holding each other to less than 10 points. By the end of the half, the Lady Hornets were still not out of the game and were trailing by only 10 points.
Moving into the second half of the game, the Ladycats and Lady Hornets continued to play a good defensive game and hold each other to minimal scoring.
Dodd City scored six points and Newcastle scored seven points in the third quarter with 2-point shots from Mallory, Hawkins and Youngblood and a free throw shot from Mallory.
With the score at 30-19 moving into the fourth quarter, the game was still not decided. Newcastle was held to another seven points in the fourth quarter while Dodd City put nine points on the board.
Despite the fourth quarter being the highest scoring quarter of the game, Dodd City could not reach the Ladycats who continued scoring effort and defensive play handed them the win.
“Dodd City had a great game plan for us defensively. They are a really solid team. Maneuvering through their defense was a challenge and we just seemed to struggle putting the ball in the hole at times,” coach Dollar said. “(Number) 23 (Addison Weeks) for Dodd City is a great player and we did some really good things defensively to slow her down at times and sometimes she had her way.”
Leading in scoring for the Ladycats was Dollar with 13 points, followed by Mallory with 11 points, Youngblood with five points, King with four points and Hawkins and Terrell with two points each.
“Mattie (Dollar) and Camren (Mallory) did a good job on both ends of the floor for us,” coach Dollar said. “Kenzie King defended well. She had to fight through a lot of screens all night long.”
The Ladycats are moving to the regional semi-final game Tuesday, Feb. 18 against the May Lady Tigers with a 6 p.m. start time at Breckenridge High School.
“We just had a shooting practice today (Friday, Feb. 14) and will really dig into the winner of the May/Slocum game (happening) tomorrow,” coach Dollar said. “We will see if we can find any weaknesses they have offensively and/or defensively and see if we can attack those areas.”
