Lady Devils Lose To Navajo, Snyder As Season Winds Down

Tuesday evening marked the last home game of the season for the Lady Blue Devils, and the last trip around Cordell’s hardwood for seniors Makenzie Hougland and Kamdyn Davis. Despite Senior Night adrenaline and emotion, though, the Lady Devils were unable to defend the home court against the Indians of Navajo and walked off the court with a 60-23 loss.

Cordell’s defense played a hard first quarter, holding the bigger Navajo girls to just 12 points, while chipping in six of their own. Navajo started to come alive in the second, though, and had managed to post up a 29-14 lead as the first half came to a close. Despite a lot of heart and hustle from the Lady Devils, the second half belonged to Navajo, who ran up another 31 points and held Cordell to just nine in the second half.

“We played Navajo in the first game this week,” said head coach Jana Rogers. “Unfortunately, they were hitting on all cylinders that night. Everybody they put in was hitting. They are a good, athletic team that can shoot the ball. I thought we fought hard the first half keeping it manageable, but turnovers early in the third cost us pretty quick. Kamdyn was able to give us a spark from the three-point line.”

Friday saw the Lady Devils on the road against Snyder. Cordell’s girls fought a hard, back and forth game against the Lady Cyclones, but ended up falling 54-49.

The Lady Devils fought to a near stalemate at 9-8 in the first quarter, before the Lady Cyclones went on a run to push their lead up to 10 at the half. But the Lady Devils didn’t give up. Cordell’s girls fought hard and closed the gap to just three points in the third quarter, which ended at 32-26 in Snyder’s favor. During the fourth quarter, the Lady Cyclones pushed their lead up as high as 16 points before the Lady Devils put together a home stretch run that brought them within four, before Snyder’s free throw shooting sealed the 54-49 win.

“Friday we played Snyder, and we knew it would be a battle,” Rogers said. “We did beat them earlier, but it wasn’t easy. We got ourselves in a bind in the first half, getting down by 10 and eventually 16 before we stepped our game up. We had a great fourth quarter, scoring a season high of 23 points. Bailey and Kam led our way in scoring. I was proud that we kept fighting until the end. I think we got within three, but Snyder was able to make free throws late to seal the deal. I was still proud they played with more confidence than I had seen in a while.”

The Lady Blue Devils wrap up regular season play in Frederick on Tuesday, then travel to Walters for district play on Friday.