Basketball Season Returns To Cordell

The Lady Blue Devils officially opened basketball season in Cordell last week, dropping their home opener to the visiting Oilerettes of Merritt 54-28.

Cordell’s girls, with only one senior starter returning from last year’s team, started slowly against the bigger and more experienced Merritt squad. The Oilerettes’ full-court defense pressured the Lady Devils into early ball handling mistakes and turnovers that created good scoring opportuinties for Merritt. Cordell’s girls, through, continued to fight to the bitter end in the matchup.

Lady Devils head coach Jana Rogers said she thought the girls seemed a bit timid in the opener, but highlighted their excellent free throw shooting, adding that getting more experience under their belts will help and her key is to see week-toweek improvement from her team.

“Well, it wasn’t a great start for the Lady Devils, but once we get a little experience under us we will get better,” she said. “I just thought we played scared. We don’t have a lot of experience back so it will take some time but I believe these ladies will turn it around. We definitely have plenty to work on during the break. The main highlight was our free throw shooting. We shot 75 percent but we just need to get there more. Also, I feel once we can get Lacey Burch back that will help as well. I’m looking forward to seeing them play better this week.”

Kamdyn Davis led the Lady Devils in scoring with 11, followed by Bailey Troub with 9.

The Lady Devils played host to Minco last night after press time and will travel to Hobart to face the Bearcats on Friday. Tip-off is at 6:30 p.m. Next week Hinton comes to Cordell on Tuesday and then the ladies travel to Burns Flat-Dill City for tournament play.