Fillies go undefeated in opener | Sports
Future opponents looking for a chink in the armor of the Cody girls basketball team won’t have much to work with after opening weekend, as the Fillies blew past a trio of teams at the ReMax Early Bird Tournament in Gillette.
Cody blasted Thunder Basin on Thursday 58-40, took down Campbell County 74-58 on Friday and had little trouble with 3A Buffalo on Saturday, crushing the Lady Bison 78-53 to go 3-0.
“I felt this weekend our team did great,” Jessa Lynn said. “There are some things, I feel we could work on and strengthen but overall I feel like this was a great way to start off the season.”
After the convincing win against Thunder Basin on Thursday, the Fillies jumped out to a 22-8 lead against the Lady Camels on Friday behind a dynamic performance from Lynn.
“Against Campbell County I was proud of everyone,” she said. “Campbell’s fans bring a high energy and we played through it. They are very aggressive and had great 3-point shooters but we found ways to defend them.”
Lynn frustrated the Campbell County offense causing multiple turnovers, and the rest of the Fillies were able to take advantage and run up the score heading into the second period.
Lynn started out the second quarter forcing a steal and Kennedi Niemann drained a three on the other end to put the Fillies up 25-9.
A Reece Niemann block led to a Molly Hays triple later in the frame, and with 4 minutes to go in the half the Fillies had built a big 32-15 lead.
A stifling Filly defense kept the Lady Camels in check, and a Kennedi Niemann layup at the end of the second helped lead to a 38-18 halftime lead.
The Lady Camels made a couple of runs in the second half to cut the lead down to as little as 13, but the Fillies always responded to build a lead back up that was never really in danger.
On Saturday the Fillies exploded for 33 points in the second quarter against Buffalo and held the Lady Bison to just four to build an insurmountable lead.
It’s the second consecutive season the Fillies swept the competition at the Gillette tournament.
“After the first quarter we weren’t happy with the results and coach Wagner had a talk with us bringing to attention that, the first quarter is not fillies basketball,” Lynn said. “We need to get into a better mindset. We also added a full court press and that impacted our second quarter as well because one of our strengths as a team is our press.”
The Fillies look to stay hot with a home matchup on Friday against Powell.
They then hit the road and head to Sheridan on Saturday before getting a few weeks off for Christmas break.
Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 pm at Switzer Gym against the Lady Panthers.