Comets lose two to open cage season
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
After an 11-year absence, Alexander High School is once again fielding a girls basketball team. And on Thursday, Dec. 3, the Comets took to the court to open their 2015-16 season against the Mandaree Warriors.
While the Comets will only be playing at the junior varsity level this season, Leslie Bennett, Alexander’s head coach, says that it was an exciting day for her team.
“We are playing with only one girl that has played competitively, while three of our players have never played before,” stated Bennett. “I thought for the first game we played pretty well. We had a lot of jitters and I think that with a lot more fundamentals and basics that we will definitely improve.”
Alexander’s lack of experience definitely showed against Mandaree as the Warriors led the Comets, 7-4, at the end of the first quarter of play, and 23-4 at halftime. The Comets would trail the Warriors, 31-9, at the end of three quarters of play, before being outscored, 8-7, in the final stanza to take a 39-16 loss.
Paige Bennett led the Comets in scoring with 11 points, followed by Nicole Hall and Alex Sims with three and two points, respectively.
Mandaree 7 23 31 39
Alexander 4 4 9 16
Divide County 28, Alexander 21
After only scoring 16 points in their first game of the season, the Alexander offense showed a marked improvement on Saturday as the Comets fell to Divide County, 28-21.
The Comets trailed the Maroons, 8-5, at the end of the first quarter, before battling back to deadlock the game, 11-11, at halftime.
But Divide County would control the second half as the Maroons led the Comets, 17-13, at the end of three quarters of play, before taking the 28-21 win.
Paige Bennett led the Comets in scoring with 15 points, while Sierra Simonson, Nicole Hall and Alex Sims would end the game with two points each for Alexander.
Divide County 8 11 17 28
Alexander 5 11 13 21