The Wright City girls basketball team fell in their first EMO conference matchup against Bowling Green 47-43 on Dec. 10. `

Despite the loss, Head Coach Dustin Elledge touted the Wildcat’s perseverance until the final second. Even with trailing the whole game, Wright City was able to narrow the gap to four points after being down 10 at halftime. 

“I told the girls don’t dwell on it. We can’t go back and change it. Can’t replay the game,” Elledge said. “[I told them] to think about tonight, how you can get better for tomorrow’s game and that’s really the mindset I try to get them in.” 

He noted that going into the fourth quarter down 43-34, they were going to give themselves a chance. The Wildcats did exactly that, and only allowed the Bobcats four points while they put up nine. 

“The biggest thing is, earlier this year, we talked about it’s not how we started but how we finished,” Elledge said. “We got ourselves a whole eight points out in the first quarter, 10 points, whatever it was, but we just kept fighting the entire time.” 

The Wildcats are coming off two games now where the outcome was decided by five points or less. On Dec. 6, they lost to South Callaway 55-50. 

“We’re playing good team basketball right now. We’re starting to put our small things together and we’re trying to see some results out of it,” Elledge said. “Hopefully, we’ll just keep building and go down the road with some victories.” 

Overall, Shiriah McRoberts led the team in points with 15. Junior Danika Graham had two three-pointers and ended with 13 points. Paige Rees and Ada Ferrell both tallied six points. Ferrell recorded 11 rebounds, while Zoe Mitchell had eight. 

Wright City will play next in the Orchard Farm Tournament from Dec. 16-21.