The Wright City girls basketball team dropped a pair of games earlier this week.
The Wildcats (5-10) fell 63-30 in a Monday night matchup against North Callaway High School.
Junior Jasmin Simpson paced the Wildcats’ offensive attack with 23 points on 6-13 shooting from the field. Kaedyn Johnson scored four points and Katie Schanuel added three points for the Wildcats.
“We came out with a lot of energy in the first quarter and most of the first half,” Wright City Girls Basketball Coach Abby Modaff said. “I was very happy with the team play walking into halftime. We talked about how we needed to make sure we stuck together and worked our rotations on defense.”
The Wildcats were outscored 34-6 in the second half. Modaff attributed the struggles in the second half to a few turnovers early in the third quarter and the inability to find their rhythm on offense.
Despite the second half struggles, Modaff sees the team chemistry growing.
“We are starting to play as a unit on the court,” Modaff said. “I always talk about being able to play 32 minutes whether on the court or on the bench. This is a point of improvement for us. Right now we have learned and mastered the offense and we have mastered the defense but we need to work on competing for a full 32 minutes as a team with limited lapses in our game.”
The Wildcats fell to Elsberry High School 45-37 Tuesday night. The Wildcats got off to an early 11-10 lead and trailed by just three points at halftime. Elsberry outscored Wright City 13-7 in the third quarter to extend the lead to nine points after three quarters.
“I think the first half we played great,” Modaff said. “We played together. We had a good focus. A few lapses in the third quarter that led to some points for them. Some fouls that got us in foul trouble taking my starters out of the game. And really just in the long run fouls caught up to us. “
One of the focuses for the Wildcats is coming out of halftime with the same energy as in the beginning of the game, Modaff said. She conceded Tuesday that second-half fatigue is a factor for the Wildcats.
“Having so many games does wear on the legs,” Modaff said. “But just trying to keep the energy up and playing together. That’s the main goal.”
The Wildcats still have eight regular season games on the schedule and only three scheduled practices for the rest of the season. With the limited practice time, the Wildcats will focus on building their offense and defense that they already know, she said.
“We’re not introducing anything new. We’re just perfecting what we already have out there,” Modaff said.
The Wildcats were scheduled to play a home game against Bourbon High School Wednesday. They have a road game against Clopton scheduled for Friday and home games scheduled against Van-Far and Silex scheduled for Monday and Wednesday.