DECATUR -- It was another disappointing week for the Decatur Lady Bulldogs as they dropped two contests, one at home and the other on the road.
In the first contest, played at Peterson Gym in Decatur Jan. 23, the Lady Bulldogs failed to stop a stronger Alpena Lady Leopard offense in the second half.
A free throw by the Lady Leopards put the first points on the scoreboard early in the first quarter. Midway through the quarter, Alpena extended its lead to five with the Lady Bulldogs yet to score.
A pair of free throws with less than a minute to play in the quarter finally put Decatur on the scoreboard.
In the second quarter, both Decatur and Alpena stepped up the offensive game plans. Decatur defense managed to hold the Alpena offensive to 13. But its own offense failed to capitalize on the scoring opportunities and the Lady Leopards went into the halftime break ahead of the Lady Bulldogs by seven.
The Decatur shooting game almost completely shut down in the second half, scoring only seven points during the entire 16 minutes of play. The Alpena Lady Leopards overwhelmed the Decatur Lady Bulldogs by 30 points, 48-18, to take the conference win.
Leading the Bulldogs in scoring was Destiny Mejia with seven, followed by Paige Vann with six, Sammie Skaggs with three and Jackie Herrera with two.
The Lady Bulldogs were on the road Jan. 26 to take on the Lady Tigers at Lead Hill High School.
As with the Alpena contest Jan. 23, the Lead Hill-Decatur game was primarily a defensive contest with neither team able to put points on the scoreboard during the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, the Lady Tigers held a five-point lead over the Lady Bulldogs. The game picked up in the second quarter with Decatur outscoring Lead Hill, 11-9, and closing the gap to three at the end of the first half.
The Lady Tigers outshot the Lady Bulldogs by eight toward the end of the fourth quarter. When the final buzzer sounded, the Lead Hill Lady Tigers took the win, 49-38, and the conference victory.
Skaggs led the scoring effort in the Lead Hill matchup with nine points, followed by Abby Tilley and Destiny Mejia each with seven. Completing the point efforts were Vann with six, Jackie Herrera with five and Desi Meek with four.
Sports on 01/31/2018