MHS - Women's Basketball / December 19, 2019 By Kasey McDowell
After securing the title "co-league champs", the 8th grade girls basketball set their sites on the season ending league tournament. After a bye, their first game was against Haysville West. After a slow start, the girls exploded in the 4th quarter to come back from an 8 point deficit to score 15 points and secure the win 23-19. Addison Mackey lead the Cats with 10 points, 8 of them in the 4th quarter. Madison Shaw and Teagan Garrison finished with 4 points and Ashley Young and Courtney Cross finished with 2 points, and Ashlyn Alumbaugh finished with 1 point.
8A 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 0 2 6 15 23
HWMS: 4 8 4 3 19
After a game reschedule due to weather, the Cats traveled to Clearwater to face the co-league champ Indians who the Cats split with during the regular season. Coach Banzet knew the girls had to stop Tjaden from the Indians to have a chance. The girls did exactly that and blanked the Indians 11-0 in the first quarter. The Indians outscored the Cats in the 2nd quarter but they went into halftime with a 16-8 lead. The Wildcats defense held strong in the 2nd half as they outscored the Indians 13-11 and secured the 29-19 victory and the league tournament championship.
Teagan Garrison had a monster game and finished with 18 points and Addison Mackey finished with 5 points, Courtney Cross with 4 points, and Madison Shaw with 2 points. Ashley Young had a great game in the paint and lead the Cats with 8 rebounds.
8A 1 2 3 4 Final
MMS: 11 5 7 6 29
CMS: 0 8 4 7 19
"Wow. What a season. Only 10 practices to get started with a one day break between fall sports meant a rocky start, but this group of girls never quit. With perseverance, they ended up co-champs of the league with Clearwater and then came out STRONG at the league tournament championship game with an 11-0 1st quarter to beat Clearwater 29-19 to win the whole darn thing" said Coach Banzet.
"The B team had an amazing season with two shutouts. That’s right, they played two teams and allowed ZERO points. They went 10-0 in league play and only lost one game all season to Augusta by two points" said Banzet.
Garrison and Shaw lead the Cats in points this season with 120 points and 110 points respectively. Addison Mackey finished with 58 points, Courtney Cross with 33 points, Avrie Warner with 13 points, Ashley Young with 10 points, Madison Dunbar with 4 points, and Ashlyn Alumbaugh with 3 points. Garrison lead the team in rebounds with 54 followed by Young with 49, Shaw with 41, Cross with 33, Warner with 28, Alumbaugh with 24, Mackey with 16, Dunbar with 9, and Cowin with 5.
On the B team, Madison Phipps had a great season with 122 points followed by Justice Blake with 79 points, Elizabeth Blankenship with 36 points, Katelynn Murray with 35 points, Kasey Dillon with 33 points, Madison Dunbar with 22 points, Miranda Clark with 17 points, Mariah Cowin with 11 points, Ashley Young with 8 points, and India Downs with 4 points. Blankenship and Cowin lead the team on the boards with 33 and 30 rebounds respectively.
The following were team awards given out December 19 at the end of season celebration:
MISS OFFENSE
A team-Teagan Garrison
B team-Madison Phipps
MISS BOARDS
A team-Ashley Young
B team-Lizzy Blankenship
MISS DEFENSE
A team-Avrie Warner
B team-Madison Dunbar
MISS HUSTLE
A team-Teagan Garrison
B team-Justice Blake
MOST IMPROVED
A team-Addison Mackey
B team-India Downs
MISS FOULER
Madison Shaw
WILDCAT AWARD
Courtney Cross
MR WILDCAT
Kasey McDowell **had to add that in there :)
"I wish the season didn’t have to end. I look forward to seeing what this group can accomplish at the next level" said Coach Banzet.
