Season ends for Lady Mavericks

The season ended for the North Country Lady Mavericks as the team fell to the Plentywood Wildcats in the Eastern C consolation semi-finals on Friday, February 24 in Wolf Point.

"Overall it was a great season," Lady Mavericks Head Coach Amber Erickson said. "I feel like we finished playing our best basketball and I felt like they grew a lot throughout the season, which was awesome."

Prior to their loss to Plentywood, the Lady Mavs were able to defeat Circle 51-44 in the first round of consolation games. North Country fell to Froid-Lake in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday evening.

In the team's opening loss to the Froid-Lake Redhawks, the Lady Mavs were led by Jada Sudbrack who had 10 points and six rebounds. Casity Boucher had eight points and Mickayla Johnson had five points and eight rebounds. Bailey Funk had eight rebounds.

The Lady Mavs could not overcome the first half in which they were outscored 21-9.

Froid-Lake shot 47 percent from the field in the game, while the Mavericks shot 19 percent.

"We struggled from the floor," Coach Erickson said. "Defensively, I thought we did pretty dang good against Froid-Lake. We just couldn't put the ball in the hole. It doesn't matter how good your defense is if you can't put some points on the board and give yourself a shot."

The team was able to pick up their lone win of the week against the Circle Wildcats on Thursday morning with balanced scoring led by Sudbrack who had 14 points. Boucher had 12 points and Kayleigh Cummings had a 10 point, 11 rebound double-double.

"It was a great win for us to pick up at the divisional tournament," Coach Erickson said. "Circle was a lot like us as far as defending pretty well. They get after it. Their effort is good; they just have issues like we do at times scoring."

Coach Erickson expressed pride in her lone senior, who came through for her team in her last win as a Lady Maverick.

"Kayleigh had a pretty solid game," Coach Erickson said. "You could tell that she was a senior and she didn't want that to be her last game. You could just tell that she wasn't ready to be done. She wanted to live to play another day."

The team shot 36 percent from the field, while Circle was 35 percent.

In the team's loss to Plentywood, North Country was led by Johnson who had a 15 point, 10 rebound double-double. Sudbrack and Boucher would both score six points.

"We were down by one at halftime," Coach Erickson said. "And again we just struggled to score consistently. That and turnovers have been our biggest downfalls in games."

Coach Erickson is hoping the team can continue to grow offensively this offseason.

"You become a better shooter in the off-season," Coach Erickson said. "It will be interesting to see if the girls get in there (the gym) because we have the potential to compete in the divisional tournament a year from now, but not unless we come back a little more confident as offensive players."