After nearly a month-long hiatus from the court, the Wright City girls basketball team fell 63-51 against EMO conference opponent Louisiana on Jan. 13. 

Head Coach Dustin Elledge noted the time off was not an excuse for their loss. However, he also mentioned in the last 23 days, the Wildcats have been in the gym six times. 

“It definitely played a factor but I think we performed well coming off a long break like that, so I’m proud of our efforts,” Elledge said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a lot, but I think we did perform well considering.” 

The Wildcats were down at the end of each quarter (21-15, 34-22, 45-36), and are now 0-2 in conference play. 

“I told the girls today that this game is a big factor to kind of gauge where we rank with the other conference teams. We were kind of able to gauge our performance here and about roughly what we could do with these other teams,” Elledge said. “Our conference is all pretty equal this year, so I think going into the rest of the season is pretty promising.” 

Throughout the game, Wright City was able to narrow the deficit and, at times, close in on the score by five or six points.

“Towards that second half, when we started to cut in, we just got back to what we’ve been preaching all year,” Elledge said. “[Which is] getting rebounds, getting bodies on people, making sure we’re getting our opportunities, going back and playing good defense and then moving the ball on offense.” 

Shiriah McRoberts led the Wildcats in points with 17, including five three-pointers. Danika Graham had 11 points, while Zoe Mitchell put up 10.