The Ladycat basketball team dropped a 42-40 decision to the Lancaster Lady Tigers Saturday in the season opener at Aledo as they went through a pair of long scoring droughts of the second half.
The Ladycats jumped out to an early 6-1 lead but Aledo quickly found itself in foul trouble.
Leading scorer Riley Sale got two quick fouls and Lancaster was in the 1-and-1 with four minutes left in the second quarter.
The Lady Tigers used an aggressive full-court press to force the inexperienced Aledo team into more of an up tempo game. Turnovers helped Lancaster come back and tie the game at 10-10 with 2:19 left in the first quarter.
Despite the foul trouble, Sale stayed in the game as she drew many fouls against the Lancaster guards and her foul shooting help keep Aledo in the lead. However, the Lady Tigers converted turnovers into layups to take a 23-20 lead with 2:48 left in the first half.
The Lady Bearcats outscored Lancaster 7-3 down the stretch of the half to take a 27-26 lead at the break.
Sale had 18 points in the first half.
The Lady Bearcats opened up a 31-26 lead midway through the third quarter, but Aledo then went scoreless for nearly five minutes. Lancaster outscored Aledo 8-0 during that stretch to take a 34-31 lead with 7 minutes left in the game.
Aledo scored to make it 34-33 with 6:41 left in the game, but Aledo then went scoreless for the next five minutes as the Lady Tigers went on another 8-0 run to take a 42-33 lead with 1:32 left in the game.
The Ladycats outscored Lancaster 7-0 over that final 1:32 but could not recover from the deficit.
Aledo is back in action at 8 p.m. Tuesday when they host Mansfield Lake Ridge.
Click here to see a gallery of action photos from the varsity game.
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The Ladycat JV team took an easy 45-29 victory over Lancaster.
Click here to see a gallery of action photos from the JV game.
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