North Callaway’s trap defense stymied Wright City in the Lady Wildcats’ loss to the Thunderbirds Monday night. 

Wright City (7-13) dropped a home conference game to North Callaway 63-39 Monday night. Wright City was unable to consistently navigate North Callaway’s zone trap defense in the loss. 

“We haven’t really seen a halfcourt press like that this season,” Wright City head girls basketball coach Dustin Elledge said. “I think that kind of messed us up. We really couldn’t see our passing lanes that we typically see with a full court press. And then we just weren’t executing. Trying to dribble through traps and really not looking for that middle person. I think the shift in all of it kind of messed with us a little bit.”

After Jasmin Simpson’s four points early in the first quarter put Wright City up 4-2, North Callaway outscored Wright City 15-0 the remainder of the quarter. After falling behind 24-8 in the second quarter, Elledge called a timeout just under halfway through the second quarter. Wright City ended the half on a 6-0 run, aided by four points from Simpson and a late basket from Katie Schanuel. Simpson scored 12 of Wright City’s 14 points in the opening half. Wright City saw more balance in the second half, with five Lady Wildcats scoring in the second half. 

“We had a few decent looks from other people on the team,” Elledge said. “We’ve just got to keep working on spreading the ball around a little bit more. That press kind of hurt us too. We had Jasmin as the main person breaking the press for a little bit. So that kind of fed into that as well.” 

Elledge noted North Callaway’s strength in the backcourt, as multiple Thunderbird guards reached double digits in points in the game. They created challenges for the Wright City defense. 

“Running that zone defense really required our girls to cover a lot more ground,” Elledge said. “We kind of discussed them having those two good guard shooters. We’re going to have to work extra hard. I think for the most part, we did decent. And then as the game kind of trickled on, we got tired and it wore us down more than it did them.”

Simpson led Wright City with 24 points. Schanuel added five points for Wright City. Danika Graham and Shiriah McRoberts scored four points each. Kaedyn Johnson scored two points for Wright City. 

Wright City also dropped a game to Silex last week. The Lady Wildcats fell to the Owls 65-35. Wright City fell behind early and trailed 39-17 at halftime. Simpson led Wright City with 25 points and four steals in last week’s loss. Simpson and Schanuel finished tied for the team lead with six rebounds. 

Wright City is scheduled to host Clopton at 7 p.m. Thursday in their regular season home finale. They are slated to play on the road at Van-Far at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 13.