-
(BRIAN SMITH | JACKSBORO HERALD-GAZETTE) Catherine Youngblood beats a Perrin defender to the basket during Newcastle’s game with Perrin. Youngblood tossed in 12 points to help the Ladycats take a 55-33 win and remain perfect in district. -
(BRIAN SMITH | JACKSBORO HERALD-GAZETTE) Newcastle’s Mattie Dollar (22) looks to drive inside with a pair of Perrin defenders close by. Dollar had 28 points and eight rebounds as the Ladycats remained perfect in district play with a 55-33 win.
Visiting Newcastle broke things open Tuesday, Jan. 7 with a big second quarter and remained unbeaten in district play with a 55-33 win over Perrin.
The Ladycats are 13-8 overall and 2-0 in district with Perrin falling to 10-11 and 1-1. Newcastle Coach Ryan Dollar said he sees room for improvement despite two convincing wins to open district action.
“We’re not as good as I thought we’d be right now,” Dollar said. “Things went kind of slow in the first quarter as we were trying to figure out what (Perrin coach Jason) Morales was doing offensively. He’s doing some good things here with different kinds of offensive sets. We were able to get some defensive stops in the second quarter and that helped.”
Perrin stayed close early on, getting within 9-8 late in the first quarter before the Ladycats closed the frame on an 8-2 run, a pair of Catherine Youngblood buckets leading the run and putting Newcastle up 17-10 after one quarter.
Ladycat post Mattie Dollar’s pair of baskets allowed the visitors to put the lead into double figures. Newcastle kicked up the defense a notch as well, leading to breakaways for easy layups.
Perrin was held to just 29% shooting in the second quarter as well with Newcastle converting 9-of-15- shots from the floor. Dollar had 13 points in the second quarter which helped the Ladycats take a 36-17 lead at the half.
Dollar received some offensive help in the third quarter with baskets by Youngblood and Sophie Terrell putting the lead above 20 for the first time. Perrin continued having shooting issues, missing its last seven shots from the floor in the frame.
Newcastle was 4-of-14 shooting in the quarter but still managed to extend its lead to 47-24 heading into the fourth frame.
The Ladycats used late baskets from Camren Mallory and Kenna Mahan to help keep the Lady Pirates at bay.
Dollar had 28 points and eight rebounds to lead Newcastle with Youngblood tossing in 12.
The Newcastle Ladycats will return to their home court with the Bobcats JV and varsity teams Tuesday, Jan. 14 for a matchup against Garner. The games will start at 5 p.m. with the JV team first.
