The Wright City girls basketball team will need to make up 35 points if it wants to upset No. 2 seed North Callaway in Monday’s district tournament.

The No. 7 Wildcats (3-20) lost to the Thunderbirds (17-7) Feb. 6 in Wright City, 61-26.

“We missed 16 shots within four feet in that game. If we made half of those, that makes things a little different,” Wright City Head Coach Fred Ross said. “We want to put pressure on a team that isn’t used to getting pressured and hopefully things happen from that.”

With one of the smallest rotations in the tournament, Wright City’s biggest advantage could be its full-court defense.

Last week in Wright City, it was North Callaway’s size and pressure that changed the game.

Kyla Bertschinger and Sam Schaefer scored 21 and 15 points, respectively.

Schaefer led the Thunderbirds with 11 rebounds, and Bertschinger grabbed a team-high three steals.

Wright City’s Amy Janowski led the Wildcats with 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including a pair of 3-pointers.

“We came out in the third quarter and only got outscored 13-10, so we came out and played pretty well in the third quarter. But it just didn’t matter because we were so far behind,” Ross said. “We have to slow down their two big girls, and that’s going to be awfully hard for us because we don’t have anyone near that size or that strength that those two girls have.” 

Ross plans on double-teaming the post when the ball is thrown inside, “and if they beat us from outside,” he said, “well, more power to them.”

Jada Hunter finished scoreless in the first game, and Abbey Jaspering was 1-of-2 from the field with two points.

Ross said his team will need big games from both players Monday night.

“Jada got in foul trouble really early last time and we’re going to need her to play defense,” he said. “The starters will have to step up and do a little bit better than what they’ve been doing. We can’t have those turnovers, and we’ll have to change those turnovers into positives somewhere.”

Freshman Mercedes Wray had a season-high eight points in the first meeting, which appeared to earn her more minutes Monday.

“Amy and Mercedes played pretty well last game and Mercedes is probably going to get a little more playing time because she’s quicker than the big girl they have, so she was a pretty good matchup,” Ross said. “She had eight points  and seven turnovers, so it’s the lesser of two evils. But she will still get some time against them.”

Ross said leading up to the game he will focus his team on the positives from the first game, not the negatives.

The Wildcats were able to break North Callaway’s press on a regular basis, but were unable to score after doing so.

“We want to build their confidence and remind them that they broke the press,” he said. “If we push the ball inside and kick it out, we’ll have open shots. We just have to do that consistently.”

The winner of Monday’s game will face No. 3 Bowling Green or No. 6 Winfield Wednesday at 7 p.m.

“We won’t talk about the negative stuff too much,” Ross said. “We’re going to add a new wrinkle to our offense and we’re probably going to zone them up a little bit more instead of man. We have to change something because we have nothing to lose, so hopefully we’ll come out and work hard.”