Lady Cats win out at holiday tourney before heading into thick of region schedule

Published 4:57 pm Tuesday, January 2, 2018

The Bainbridge Lady Cats are well on their way to another shot at a Region Championship, an accomplishment they fell 4 points short of last season.

The girls have gone on an 8-game tear, have won all but one game in December and dominated the Vereen Rehab Christmas Shoot Out last weekend by winning all three of their games.

“We are preparing one play at a time, one game at a time,” Coach Kelvin Cochran said. “It has been what we have been talking about. We are going to go out there and do our job to the best of our ability. I know we are going to compete.”

Email newsletter signup

The Lady Cats have competed well. At 15-2, the Lady Cats still can improve in region play, where they sit at 1-1. That will work itself out later this month as the team finishes off its region schedule.

“Our goal is to win a region championship and play it again this year,” Cochran said.

In the Christmas Shoot Out tournament, the Lady Cats opened against Brunswick and took the game to double overtime, winning 73-71.

The girls led 15-8 at the end of the first quarter and 32-20 at halftime. But Brunswick snuck back into the mix and put up 37 points to Bainbridge’s 24 in the second half. Bainbridge outlasted them and scored nine points in first overtime then seven in second overtime.

With the hardest game of the week out of the way, the Lady Cats went on to beat Gainesville (Florida) 53-48 and Dougherty 59-50 the following two days.

“There’s no secret, it’s just hard work in between games,” Cochran said. “The girls did a great job getting their bodies in shape. They play well together and understand the system. They are doing a great job performing. Hoping we can stay healthy.”

Cochran praised the fact that the Lady Cats got to see different competition than who was in the region and Southwest Georgia area.

The Lady Cats tip off against Veterans this Friday at 6 p.m.