ShawneeDispatch.com

For most of the season, the Shawnee Mission Northwest girls basketball team has been rising up the state rankings as one of the teams to look out for.

However, that momentum was stopped on Friday night when the team lost to a scrappy Shawnee Mission East, 59-45.

Although the Cougars fought hard throughout the game, they were never able to get into striking distance of the Lancers when it came to crunch time.

SM Northwest coach Jeff Dickson took all of the blame for the team’s performance.

“I did a terrible job of getting us ready. It’s completely on me,” he said. “I didn’t have us prepared. I didn’t have us doing the things we needed to do and they took advantage of that. Our girls fought hard and played and tried to do the right thing, but that’s one of those games that’s completely on me.”

Early on in the contest, SM Northwest looked to be in control, turning SM East over several times and getting easy layups in transition on the way to a 12-9 advantage. However, the Lancers began to fight back, forcing three lead changes in the last two minutes of halftime and knotted the score at 22-22.

Dickson expected big games from the Lancers’ two star seniors, Caroline Dodd (14 points) and Caroline Nick (18 points), but when their opponent’s other options stepped up, the Cougars knew they were in for a difficult second half.

“When you put five girls on the floor like that that can knock down shots, then it gets a lot more difficult to try to defend,” Dickson said.

For the fourth quarter, SM Northwest continued to try to shoot its way back into the game, but shots were just not falling for the team. Despite the defeat, the Cougars still managed to collect contributions on the offensive end from senior Sarah Schmidt, who finished with a team-high 13 points. Sophomore McKayla Ross (10 points) and freshman Sydney Thompson (8 points) were other providers for SM Northwest.

“If these girls are the girls I’ve come to know and love over the last two years, I know we’ll bounce back,” Dickson said.

SM Northwest (11-5) must regroup and get ready for the upcoming stretch of difficult matchups.

But from what the Cougars have shown this year, they should still be in the hunt to achieve their major goals.

“People will see that score and think we got blown out,” Dickson said. “I know the game was closer than that, but these are the kind of games we need if we want to make some noise at sub-state.”

SM Northwest’s played at Lawrence Free State on Tuesday. Check shawneedispatch.com, as updates were not available before press time.

This story was updated to correct the class years of several SM Northwest players.

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