Just two years removed from a Class 4A basketball state championship, the Louisville Lady Wildcats have aspirations of doing it again this year.
LHS ran up against the eventual state champs in the playoffs last season with Tishomingo County coming away with a victory in the Sweet 16. This season, the Lady Cats wouldn’t have to meet up with the state’s best 4A team until the state championship.
“I thought we had an amazing draw,” coach Mitchell McCurry said. “I told my girls that we needed to get that one seed so we can avoid Tishomingo and Choctaw Central until the championship and we got it. We’re excited and focused on the journey ahead but we’re also not looking past anyone at this point.”
To get the No. 1 seed, the Lady Cats had to make it through teams that had already seen them once. Last week’s Class 4A, Region 3 tournament was going to be a two-game challenge for LHS and the Lady Cats had a target on their back.
LHS was able to win a grueling defensive ball game in the semifinals as it took down Caledonia 37-27. The championship game featured LHS against a tough Houston team which had already beaten the Lady Cats once this year. It went down to the wire, but LHS was able to come out victorious in a 49-45 win to claim the title.
“We did a really good job of being sound defensively and that carried us over the top,” McCurry said of the championship win. “We’re hitting our marks offensively and playing really good basketball. I preach to my girls about playing one game at a time and playing these teams three times is really tough. It geared us up for the postseason having to play that district schedule and compete in the tournament.”
LHS had a short turnaround going from the district title to the first round of the playoffs and the team hosted North Pontotoc on Monday night.
In a win-or-go-home ball game, LHS wasn’t going home as the team dominated the visitors 66-32. That advanced the Wildcats (18-5) to round two yet again and they host Newton County on Friday night at 6 p.m.
“I was very impressed. We hit them in the mouth early and picked them up full court. We looked like a really good basketball team from start to finish,” McCurry said. “With Newton County, we’re going to try to use our speed to beat them up and down the court and use ball pressure. We have a great opportunity on Friday with another chance to advance to the Sweet 16 and I think our girls are ready.”
On the boys side, the season came to an end in the Region 3 tournament for the Wildcats. LHS had two starters down with the flu and it would cost them in a heartbreaking 46-45 defeat to the Houston Hilltoppers for the right to get into the playoffs.
It ended what has been a rough season for the Wildcats as the team dealt with another delayed start with the full team due to football season. McCurry also had a lot of other issues at play that never allowed his team to gel in a 6-15 season.
“It was a tough year,” McCurry said. “I thought we got better but also thought every time we got better something bad happened. We always had something blocking our path to be really successful. We started to pick it up and then we had kids get sick or get in trouble. We’ll get back to work next year.”
