For the second time this season, the Haxtun Lady Bulldogs took on the Sedgwick County Lady Cougars. The Lady Cougars currently hold the third place seed in Colorado High School Activities Association 2A rankings. Despite falling by 26 points, Head Coach Arlan Scholl is impressed with the way his team battled against a top-ranked team.

“This was another difficult opponent, finding them ranked at the top RPI of the 2A teams in the State,” Scholl said. “Again, the girls battled hard, but just could not come away with the win.”

In the first meeting, Haxtun took on the Cougars on their home court in Julesburg; this time the Lady Cougars traveled to the home of the Lady Bulldogs. Sedgwick County jumped to an early 18-9 lead after a quarter of play. The visiting team added another 19 to the board to hold a 20-point advantage at the half.

The Lady Bulldogs put up 10 points in both the third and fourth quarters but the 20-point addition wasn’t enough to close in on the gap. Sedgwick County earned the win, 63-37.

Senior guard Taylor Schram put up 12 points Friday night. She connected with six shots inside the paint to earn the team high. Senior Allie Thompson added eight points and freshman Bobbi Starkebaum tacked on seven.

Thompson led the Lady Bulldogs in rebounds with eight. She pulled down two on offense and six on defense. Starkebaum brought down seven rebounds including five on offense and two on defense. K’lyn Bornhoft, Schram and Cassidy Goddard each tallied four rebounds against the Lady Cougars.

Schram and Thompson both led in assists with four apiece. On the other side of the ball, Bornhoft registered four steals.

“We have been working very hard on our defense and I saw some good things happening in those areas, but we could not get enough stops to keep us in the game. I am very pleased with the ‘no quit’ attitude of these girls when they are presented with adversity,” Scholl said.

The Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to remain at home this weekend as they host Holyoke on Friday and Otis on Saturday. According to MaxPreps, the 2A Lady Dragons are 9-1 overall and 1-0 in league play. Holyoke’s one loss came at the hands of the Lady Cougars in the first half of the season. The match up with Haxtun and Holyoke is set to begin with junior varsity action at 4 p.m.

The Otis Lady Bulldogs hold an overall 2-8 record, according to MaxPreps. They are 1-1 in league play thus far this season. Contests with junior varsity action begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.