The Lady Cats placed second in the Kingsville Academy Shoot-Out on Nov. 18. The tournament was set up in a pool-play style with the winners advancing into the bracket play.

In their first game in their pool, the Lady Cats played the Hebbronville Lady Longhorns. The Lady Cats came out on top with a 45-33 victory.

Haley Moehr and Cecilia Bauer led the Lady Cats with 9 points each. In game two, the Lady Cats defeated Runge 51-21. With that win the Lady Cats were undefeated and first place in their pool, which advanced them into the championship gold bracket. Megan Shaw scored 15 and Alexa Montemayor scored 10.

In their semi-final game, the Lady Cats played the host team, Kingsville Academy Lady Lions. This was a hard fought battle and the Lady Cats overcame some adversity to pull out a win 55-50.

“The girls responded well to the challenge,” said Coach David Hemphill.

Megan Shaw and Bauer scored 11 and Haley Brynelsen scored 10 in the victory. With that win the Lady Cats advanced into the championship to face the Bishop Lady Badgers.

In the championship game, the Lady Cats totally dominated the Badgers holding them to a total of 18 points for three quarters. In the fourth quarter the badgers jumped into a full court press that rattled the Lady Cats and allowed the Badgers to mount a comeback.

With the Lady Cats behind by one with 11 seconds to play in the game, the Lady Cats managed to get two shots off, but unfortunately neither could find the bottom of the net.

The Lady Cats fell short, losing the game 42-41 in a heart breaker. The loss placed the Lady Cats second in the tournament.

“I’m really proud of our girls,” Hemphill said. “We fought like warriors. It was an exciting championship game, we just came up a little short. Last year we only won one game in that tournament and now this year we’re in the championship game. We had a really good tournament.”

Montemayor and Bauer were chosen to the all tournament team.

On Nov. 22, in the battle of Highway 77, the Refugio Lady Cats defeated the Woodsboro Lady Eagles 50-36.

The Lady Cats were ahead 20-14 at halftime and came out and out scored the Lady Eagles 14-9 in the third quarter.

Full court defensive pressure helped the Lady Cats force turnovers that led to easy baskets.

“Their big girl is hard to stop,” Hemphill said. “We had to rely on our defensive pressure to create turnovers.”

The Lady Cats travel to Pettus before taking some time off the Thanksgiving break. Upon return the Lady Cats host the Kingsville Lady Brahmas and then travel to the Industrial tournament.