It was a tough week back from Christmas as the Louisville Wildcats are trying to get back in the swing of things on the court.
Both the boys and girls teams traveled up the road to Cumberland to play in the East Webster Christmas Classic but came away with a couple of defeats against Jackson Academy.
The girls team dug itself a hole and fell behind against the Lady Raiders by over 20 points, but Mitchell McCurry’s players fought all the way back to make it a four-point game. Ultimately, the hill was too high to climb in a 62-55 loss.
“We came out flat the first three quarters and we just couldn’t climb out of the hole,” McCurry said. “We were just really slow and I think that Christmas effect got ahold of us.”
For the boys squad, it was a close game most of the way until foul trouble prior to the fourth quarter changed things. JA ran away in the fourth and won the game 75-57.
“We let foul trouble plague us in the end. We got some terrible fouls on our end and a dumb technical that affected us,” McCurry said of the JA loss. “We were without three starters in the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter and fell behind. We couldn’t get back in it after that.”
The girls team fell to 6-7 on the year in what has been a tough start to the season after winning a state title in Class 4A a year ago. Having a young team has been the biggest issue that McCurry has faced.
“I think it’s been very up and down. That’s the hard part right now is that we can’t stay consistent because of the youth,” McCurry said. “I think we had a really great summer and played really well, but coming into the season we faltered a little bit. We fell behind and lost some games that we should have won. We’re playing hard we’re just making bad decisions. I have hope for them.”
For the boys, they’re also now 6-7 and are preparing for district play starting this week.
McCurry hasn’t had the luxury of having his entire team together due to injuries or the long football season that led to a state title. That is set to end soon as the coach is close to being at full strength just in time for district play on Friday against Caledonia on the road.
“We’re still adjusting with the football boys,” McCurry said. “We’ve got one of our starters back but are still down one starter. Once he’s back, we’ll have a really good starting five and we’ll have three good ones off the bench. I think our boys are starting to come together.”
