After suffering a hard 69-31 loss to EMO conference opponent North Callaway on Feb. 10, the Wright City girls basketball team is hoping to get the ball rolling again with a jam-packed three game-week ahead of them. 

“I just told them in the locker room, we don’t have time to kind of go back to the drawing board. We have to quickly refocus and let the frustration sink in because it is frustrating to have a game like that, but we have to quickly get into that mindset of we have a game tomorrow, Thursday and Friday,” Head Coach Dustin Elledge said. 

Coming into the game, Elledge did not expect it to be as tough of a game as it was and noted the Wildcats have the ability to play a closer game. However, North Callaway’s physicality from the start of the game “shell shocked” the Wildcats. 

“We never really could adjust or bounce back from that,” Elledge said. “They’re a pretty physical team and it kind of got under our skin here and there, so it was a mentally tough game.” 

The Wildcats were down at the end of each quarter (20-6, 38-13, 59-24). Wright City was able to generate some offensive flow in the third quarter and scored 11 points from Shiriah McRoberts, Danika Graham and Ada Ferrell. 

McRoberts ended the game with 13 points, while Graham recorded seven. Zoe Mitchell tallied five points. 

“I think we kind of settled in and got the initial shock out of our system and we were able to perform a little bit better as we went into those quarters,” Elledge said. “I think defensively that physicality they ran with still kind of hurt us there.” 

Elledge touted his team for keeping the “right attitude and mindset.” 

“[They] kept trying and giving it all they could. It’s how we end the games and are we ending on top like we should with good effort,” Elledge said. “I feel like we started to do better and finish with good effort and equally match what they were doing.” 

Wright City will play at home on Feb. 13 against conference opponent Clopton at 7:15 p.m.