The Louisville Lady Wildcats added their eighth and final Region 4-4A win of the regular season last Tuesday in the form of a 57-33 win against New Hope. Louisville jumped out to a 16-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, and it built that advantage up to 35-12 at halftime.
Jalen Ingram scored a game-high 18 points, and Lymyia Fifer and Iitasha Paty contributed with 9. Nine Louisville players recorded points in the win.
Louisville ended the regular season with a 20-4 overall record and closed it out on a three-game win streak. The Lady Wildcats have already secured a trip to the Class 4A playoffs.
The Lady Wildcats will put their No. 1 seed to the test in Thursday’s Region 4-4A tournament at Leake Central against the winner of the Noxubee County-Kosciusko first-round contest.
Louisville coach Kenyon Ross said the Lady Wildcats have one objective for the region tournament.
“Handling business — that’s the key word to it,” Ross said. “Winning these regular-season games have been getting us ready for the district tournament and playing playoff brand of play. So hopefully we can continue to play the way we’ve been playing, (and) we should go a very long way.”
Ross said although his team has an eight-day layoff, it's been using the downtime to work on staying conditioned for the late-season push.
“Conditioning and shooting,” Ross said. “With this long layoff, you have to make sure your kids stay conditioned. For five consecutive days, we’ve been working on legs and we’ve been running a lot.”
BOYS
New Hope defeated Louisville (13-10) last Tuesday, handing the Wildcats 54-42 loss in the last game of the regular season.
The loss notwithstanding, Louisville’s 3-5 Region 4-4A record this year was good enough to finish No. 3 in the standings and give the Wildcats an eight-day layoff before it faces New Hope gain on Thursday. Like the Lady Wildcats, the boys have already clinched a trip to the Class 4A playoffs.
By drawing the Trojans, Louisville gets a team in which it finished the regular season with a 1-1 record.
“The last time we played New Hope (Feb. 5) we were down four key players,” Ross said. “We just have to change the mindset and know that for us to host that first-round playoff game, we need to handle business. Our mindset needs to change into a playoff mindset. I think we’re kind of a fatigued team at this point, because of the kids going so far in football and winning the state championship in football. I really kind of think my kids are low on fuel right now. We have to understand to get that hunger back and know we have one more game to go.”
