Lady Bears just miss out on earning upset bid to State
O’NEILL — The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Lady Bears put a huge scare in Class D1’s only undefeated team before falling at the end of their District title game Friday.
The Lady Bears won their SubDistrict to earn a shot at the state tournament and went into the Class D-1 Sweet 16 as the No. 14 seed, earning them a shot at third-seeded and undefeated Pleasanton in the D1-3 district final Friday.
The Lady Bears gave Pleasanton all it wanted, but the Lady Bulldogs mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to end LCC’s hopes in a 44-38 decision.
“The key to the game for us was transition defense which we did a really good job on,” said LCC Coach Marcus Mesersmith. “The other key was rebounding which they outrebounded us 32-23.
LCC’s late-season effort was something to be proud of, said head coach Marcus Messersmith.
“Overall our girls played an amazing game. We were up one with 2:30 left in the game and pushed (a top seed).”
Overall, it was a solid way to wrap a strong campaign.
“The way we finished the season was a great success for us,” Messersmith said. “We had a 13-12 final record which is LCCs first winning record since 2014. We also learned how hard and how consistent you have to play to beat great teams and I think that is going to be a huge boost for us moving forward.”
The LCC girls hung with the third-ranked Lady Bulldogs throughout a defensive-minded first half, going into the locker room trailing by four at 20-16.
The Lady Bears came out and shot the ball well in the third quarter, rallying to take a 29-27 lead into the fourth quarter, and had their chances to put the game away in the final period, only to see Pleasanton come back and make key plays at the end to thwart the Lady Bears upset hopes and advance to this week’s state tournament.
Erica Wolfgram had a game-high 16 points to lead the Lady Bears.
Delaney Ehlers led the team in rebounds with eight, Hall added six.
Hall had three assists and Christensen and Ehlers had four and three steals, respectively.
Now the Lady Bears will look to the future.
“We have 12 of 14 players returning that had the opportunity to see and be a part of the team that made substate,” Messersmith said. “It will start this spring as we start doing weights two to three times a week and we have several girls that won’t do track that I’ll be working with go improve their skills and make them better players.
“We will continue into summer where we will to continue to get better but more as a team going to camps and working on each players individual skill.”
LCC 6 10 13 9 — 38
Pleasanton 10 10 7 17 — 44
SCORING
LCC — Erica Wolfgram, 16; Delaney Ehlers, 7; Kinsey Hall 7,Makayla Forsberg 5, Haley Christensen, 3. Pleasanton— Nichols 8, Weisdorfer 4, Paitz 11, Lindner 6, Pierce 9, Fisher 6.
REBOUNDS LCC - Delaney Ehlers, 8; Kinsey Hall, 6; Erica Wolfgram, 4; Reggan Kuhlman, 3; J Urwiler, 1; Makayla Forsberg, 1.
ASSISTS LCC - Kinsey Hall, 3.
STEALS LCC - Haley Christensen, 4; Delaney Ehlers, 3; Makayla Forsberg, 2; Erica Wolfgram, 1.
