Pictured is Ellie Welch
No one is unbeatable. Just ask the Jr Lady Tigers when they fell to Trinity a few weeks back. Sometimes you just have a bad game and other times you’re just downright outmatched. The Mansfield Jr Lady Tigers sure looked unbeatable though as they outmatched the JC Westside Rebels on Friday, January 29th. Mansfield took the long drive to JC Westside with a game to play and drove back out with a dominant 44-9 victory.
The show started with Kaylee Ward tipping the ball off to the Lady Tigers and then getting into her groove. Normally Ward is a rebound and put back player, but on that particular day, she turned on the boosters. Ward must’ve been learning from her older sister, Kynslee, as she drove the length of the court on multiple occasions for Lady Tiger buckets. The Lady Tigers closed out the 1st quarter with a commanding 22-0 lead over the Lady Rebels. It was then time for the old faithful’s to step in as Kynslee Ward, Harlie Fuller, and Alyson Edwards mounted up and took charge at JC Westside. Mansfield held the Lady Rebels scoreless up until the 2:48 point in the 2nd Quarter and still rolled into halftime with a 30-2 lead.
After proving they were out of shape last week against Lavaca, the starters went back onto the court to start the 3rd quarter to gain some conditioning. As they wore down, Mansfield began putting in their bench. This isn’t just any group of bench players though. This was a Lady Tigers bench and they hit the court with the same ferocity as their starting counterparts. After ending the 3rd quarter with a 42-7 lead, the Lady Tigers held the final quarter with a scoring tie, allowing 2 points and making 2 points to close the game out with a 44-9 final.
Kaylee Ward led the team with a whopping 18 points, 7 blocks, 4 deflections, and 5 steals. Not to be outdone by her little sister, Kynslee Ward scored 11 points, had 4 assists, 10 steals, and 5 deflections against the Lady Rebels. Harlie and Shelbie Fuller were also trying to garner the sibling favorite with Harlie outdoing her little sister in scoring putting up 4 points against Shelbie’s 2 points while the pair tied in rebounds with two apiece. While the sisters were battling over stats, the Lady Tigers backbone, Alyson Edwards, worked her way to gaining 7 points, 1 assist, and 3 rebounds. And Ellie Welch closed the scoring books for the Lady Tigers with a 2 point board bucket at the end of the game.
The win boosted the Lady Tigers’ overall record to 10-1 and 3-0 in conference play. This week is where Mansfield is put to the test. The Jr Lady Tigers will host Magazine on Monday, February 1st, travel to an unfamiliar jungle in Acorn on Wednesday, February 3rd, and then close out their regular season at Mountainburg. A death row schedule like this in the same week is going to prove challenging, but the Mansfield Jr Lady Tigers won’t back down.
