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The Columbus Lady Cards have been having a strong year at this point of the season’s latter stages. At 21-4, Columbus is sitting comfortably at the top of the district standings and are hoping to potentially win out to complete the season. During Friday night’s trip to Rice Consolidated, the Lady Cards visited a team with much different expectations. The Lady Raiders have been focused on improving their fundamentals and skills, but their efforts have not translated to wins this season. They are 2-20 overall on the season and have yet to pick up their first district win. The matchup between the Lady Cards and the Lady Raiders was reflective of the position both teams find themselves in at this point as district-leading Columbus claimed a 66-24 victory over the last place Lady Raiders.
The Lady Cards came out with one of their best opening quarters of the season to take control of the game and create a huge lead. The Lady Raiders managed just five points in the opening period while allowing Columbus to score 29 points in a blowout opening period. The Lady Cards continued their offensive effectiveness in the second quarter and went into halftime with a 46-13 lead on the scoreboard.
Rice gave their best shot in the third quarter with their highest-scoring period of the game. They played Columbus to a stalemate in the period as the teams finished with nine points apiece in the third quarter. However, Rice ran out of steam to end the game with only two points to the Lady Cards’ 11 points.
The Lady Cards were led by a strong night from Karlee Mathis. Mathis scored 18 points as the game’s top scorer. She got some big time scoring assistance from senior guard Bailey Gustus who finished with 18 points of her own. Gustus started the game on fire, scoring 10 of her points in the opening period. Ally Tribe and Treasure Upson scored eight and seven points respectively to add to their leading scorers’ performances. Tribe also finished with 11 rebounds, and Upson stuffed the stat sheet with eight rebounds, five assists and five steals.
For the Lady Raiders, Tatianna Mills led the team in scoring with 15 points. Makayla Mesa added five points and Tricelle Fields and Avery Brown added two points each as the only other Lady Raiders to score.
Both the Lady Raiders and the Lady Cards played in games on Tuesday, Jan 17. Coverage of those games can be found on page six.
