Lady Coyotes Split Games to Start Season

The Dodson Coyotes Lady Coyotes basketball team picked up their first victory of the season in Glasgow last weekend at the Class C Showcase.

The team defeated the Terry Lady Terriers 45-37 last Friday, December 1, and fell 48-31 to the Mon-Dak (Westby-Grenora) Thunder on Saturday, December 2.

Dodson does not have a game scheduled for this weekend, but will host the Scobey Spartans on Friday, December 15, starting at 4 p.m. They will then host the 2023 Class C State Champion North Country Lady Mavericks on Saturday, December 16 starting at 5:30 p.m.

In Dodson's win over Terry, senior Kataya KillEagle had a game-leading 26 points.

Amara "Big Mars" Johnson had seven points. Lilyian TurnsPlenty had seven points. Jazlyn KillEagle had four points. Baylee Johnson had two points. Precious Stiffarm had two points.

"At first, we kept struggling because we weren't talking or boxing out," K. KillEagle said. "At the beginning of the game, I told the girls to have fun, first of all. Make sure that we don't have attitudes because that can really stop a game. I think that we did good moving our feet. We could have done better on boxing out but we were all just having fun."

Dodson outscored Terry 11-9 in the first quarter. Terry inched close in the second quarter and the halftime score was 19-18 in favor of Dodson. The Lady Coyotes pulled away in the third quarter, scoring 12 points, while holding Terry to six points. The score at the end of the third quarter was 31-24. Terry had 13 points in the fourth quarter, while Dodson scored 14.

The team was able to slow down Terry's shooters. KillEagle was asked what went so well on defense.

"Our talking has improved a lot since last year," K. KillEagle said. "We did get some new girls and they hustle. In practice we have been working on our defense a lot."

She said that it felt great to be back on the court, but she was a little sad because she realized that is her final year of high school basketball.

She was asked about the new additions on the team which include Johnson, Stiffarm, and several freshman and an eighth grader.

"They have helped us out a lot, especially with more girls on the bench," K. KillEagle said. "I think that they have some good experience but we can all work on some stuff. I think that they are doing good overall."

In Dodson's loss to Mon-Dak, Kataya KillEagle led all scorers with 19 points. Stiffarm had six points, TurnsPlenty had three points, Johnson had two points, and Kashton Siers had two points.

Dodson kept things close early, only falling behind 4-6 after the first quarter. Mon-Dak outscored the Lady Coyotes 20-8 in the second quarter and 10-6 in the third quarter. The Lady Coyotes put up 13 points in the fourth quarter, but Mon-Dak held on scoring 12 points of their own.