Women’s Baskeball Oakville Tournament Recap

The Westminster girls varsity basketball team was in the Oakville round robin last week. They played 3 games over 3 days and won 2.

The first game was against Francis Howell North and the Wildcats pulled off the win 57-44. The Cats started the game with great intensity and got up 22-0 in the first quarter. It was a great team win with junior Kiley Mckee leading the team to victory with 17 points. Junior Kristen Keys was not far behind her, dropping 13 and leading the team in rebounds with 5. The cats let the Knights back in it throughout the game but never gave up the lead. With this win, the Wildcats were ready to go into next 2 days off a good win.

On Thursday, the Wildcats played against the hosts of the round robin, Oakville. The cats knew this game could go either way, and Oakville was a good team with solid players. The scoring was back and forth the entire game, but the Wildcats maintained the lead almost the entire game. Mckee again led the team in scoring with 17 points. The Wildcats were strong on the boards and did not let the Oakville team drive and get easy layups which is a main component of their game. The cats won 44-40, playing hard until the final whistle. This win boosted the Wildcats confidence with their now 5-6 record, almost at a .500 season.

By the time Friday rolled around, the Cats were ready to finish the round robin with a win. They would be facing their toughest opponent of the week, the Pattonville Pirates. The Wildcats knew this was going to be a hard game, the pirates were arguably the best team in the tournament and had a numerous amount of good ball players on the team. They moved the ball well and drove hard to the basket. The Wildcats started strong and got ahead quick, but the Pirates never went away. Pattonville ended up taking the lead at the buzzer, 23-22 going into halftime, and the Wildcats knew the second half was going to be even harder than the first.

Pattonville came out strong in the 3rd quarter, with their shooter #14, sophomore Jaliya Smith, getting hot at the end of the quarter. The Wildcats continued to chip away at the gap, but could not seem to get close enough. With about 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter, tragedy struck. Junior Kristen Keys, one of the Wildcats’ leading scorers, hyperextended her knee. With all the emotions in the game, this proved to be the worst set of circumstances for the lady cats. After Keys was wheeled off the court and taken the hospital, the Wildcats had to continue to play hard for the last few minutes. Down by 11, the Wildcats needed everything to go right for them. But, unfortunately, this did not happen. While the Wildcats’ did put a few points up on the board, so did the pirates, and the gap between the 2 teams remained and the Wildcats’ lost 47-38.

While the Lady cats faced an extreme amount of adversity throughout the round robin, they still continued to fight until the last second of each game. Coming out of the week 2-1, the wildcat’s are looking to get more wins this week on Tuesday at Parkway Central and Friday at Parkway West. Come support your lady cats!