The Smithville Lady Tigers won their 20th game of the season Feb. 9 in their regular season finale, which also happened to be parent/senior night.

Smithville defeated Bellville 67-36 at Tiger Gym.

“It was a good night all around for us,” said head coach Robin Ramsay. “Everyone played a lot of minutes and played very well. It’s always a special night when we honor our parents and seniors and the kids played hard. We’re looking forward to our playoff game.”

The Lady Tigers (20-10, 6-4 District 25-3A) outscored Bellville in every quarter, tiring the team out throughout the game.

Jaimie Kadlecek, who had a game-high 16 points, made the first basket of the night – a field goal with 7:18 remaining in the first quarter.

After an offensively frustrating next couple of minutes, Kadlecek was able to get in another field goal. Thirty seconds later, Smithville’s Blakelee Saunders, who totaled with nine points, made a field goal as well.

The Lady Tigers started the second quarter out like they were on fire.

Kadlecek got the fire going, making a field goal with 6:17 remaining.

Seconds later, Taylor Weldon, who came out with a total of seven points, made one as well after an assist from Colline Morrell, who came out with four.

Ariel Vinklarek, who had an impressive 10 points, drove the ball into the basket.

About five seconds later, Morrell made a steal and got a basket as well.

Smithville held a 13-point lead with a little more than four minutes left in the half.

Bellville finally snapped the scoring drought, but the Lady Tigers held a commanding 28-15 lead at halftime.

Smithville continued its dominance over the Lady Brahmas in the second half.

The Lady Tigers received positive contributions from Vinklarek, Kadlecek, Madison Hannusch, who had an impressive eight points coming off the bench, and Faith Ralph, who had four.

Meanwhile, Ralph, Vinklarek and Hannusch all made one more basket each, ending the third quarter ahead by 26 points, 46-20.

During the final quarter, the Lady Brahmas tried to step it up, but were just too far behind.

Saunders made her first of two three-pointers with 7:29 remaining in the game.

During the last couple minutes of the game, Hannusch made two more field goals, as did Trina Deyo.

The Lady Brahmas scored seven more points in those remaining minutes, but it was not enough to conquer their opponent’s 21-point lead.

Warm-up game vs. Elgin

In order to prepare themselves for the playoffs, the Lady Tigers played a warm-up game against the Elgin Lady Cats last Friday in Elgin.

The teams matched up well, but Smithville fell 49-42 in overtime due to some fundamental breakdowns.

“Elgin played hard and hit some threes that were crucial,” Ramsay said.
“We didn’t play great defense and at the end of regulaton we totally broke down fundamentally a couple of times. Hopefully we learned valuable lessons that will help us in the playoffs.”