A frustrating offensive showing in the first quarter downed the Lady Wildcats 51-45 in their regular-season ending loss to the Lady Eagles on Wednesday night.
New Bloomfield (20-5) exhibited shaky shooting in the first 8 minutes, leading to an 18-9 deficit. The Lady Wildcats limited Southern Boone to just five points in the second quarter, yet still trailed 24-14 at halftime.
"We couldn't hit shots and then in the second quarter, we missed eight free throws," New Bloomfield head coach Brett Craighead said. "If we hit those free throws, it's a different story going into halftime."
The Lady Wildcats trailed 38-28 to start the fourth and climbed to within three points late in the game before the Lady Eagles iced the game at the free-throw line.
"We defended well; (Southern Boone) had been hitting a lot of 3's and we kept them to one the whole game," Craighead said. "It just took too much energy to get back out (the deficit) and we ran out of time."
Senior forward Ashley Kelley paced New Bloomfield with 12 points, while freshman guard Madi Craighead pitched in with 10. Senior forward Brooke Kelley scored nine points and senior forward Taylor Howard grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
Southern Boone's Skylar Beeson led all players with 13 points. TrEl'Shawn Smith contributed 10 for the Lady Eagles.
The Lady Wildcats closed their junior varsity season with a 37-33 loss. Madison Love scored 13 points, while Alexandra Morningstar totaled eight for New Bloomfield (7-4).
The Lady Wildcats drew the No. 2 seed in the Class 2, District 8 tournament at Russellville. New Bloomfield will play No. 7 Vienna at 7 p.m. Monday.
"They've got good size," Brett Craighead said. "I think they're better than their record show; they're big, but I feel like we have good size, too."