LONG AND WINDING ROAD: North Laurel drops second loss midway through eight-game road trip
Feb. 26—SOMERSET — Eddie Mahan's North Laurel Lady Jaguars are midway through a season-long eight-game road trip after traveling to play Southwestern on Thursday.
The third time wasn't a charm for North Laurel as the Lady Jaguars fell to 1-2 against the Lady Warriors this season after dropping a 66-54 decision.
"We didn't show up to play in the first half and it showed," Mahan said. "You can't give a very good team a big lead like we did and still win. We looked like the better team as we mounted our comeback in the second half but the damage had already been done.
"This is an issue of me not having them ready to play and then us having to fight back extremely hard to overcome it," he added. "Defense is going to have to be a focus for us in games at that seems to be where we are letting up right now."
North Laurel could never get on track and saw its record drop to 15-4 and 2-2 on its current road trip.
The Lady Jaguars were led by juniors Hailee Valentine and Emily Sizemore, who turned in identical 17-point scoring efforts while Chloe Nichelson added eight points and Bella Sizemore finished with seven points. Brooke Nichelson chopped in three points and Saige McClure finished with two points.
Mahan's squad fell behind, 15-19, in the first quarter and saw Southwestern use an 18-9 run in the second quarter to build a 33-19 lead.
North Laurel hit three 3-pointers while Valentine scored 11 points to help the Lady Jaguars cut their deficit to 52-44 heading into the fourth quarter. Southwestern put the game away in the fourth quarter by outscoring North Laurel, 14-10.
Southwestern 66, North Laurel 54
North Laurel 10 9 25 10 54
Southwestern 15 18 19 14 66
North Laurel (54) — Valentine 17, B. Sizemore 7, Nichelson 3, E. Sizemore 17, McKnight 8, McClure 2.
Southwestern (66) — Loveless 17, Young 4, Ay. Smiddy 16, Foreman 2, Acey 8, Ay. Smiddy 10, Noritis 2, Molden 7.
