By BROOKE APPLE

SHERWOOD — The Lady Wildcats (2-0) made the long trek up to Sherwood to face off with the Fairview Apaches (0-1). The Lady Cats did not seem to be bothered by the long bus ride though, as they outlasted the Apaches with a defeat of 52-36.

Tuesday’s match-up was a battle of rebounds and making it to the foul line. The Cats prevailed in both of these categories by outrebounding the Apaches 28 to 15. The fighting Apaches lost Bridget Eicher to fouls with 1:53 remaining and also ended the game with four other players with four fouls. The Cats ended up shooting 35 free throws to the Apaches 12.  Jenna Miller was the prevalent member of the Lady Cats that made it to the foul line going 9-for-12 at the line. Ashley Watkins and Stephanie Blockberger also seemed to be common people at the line with Watkins going 6-for-7 and Blockberger going 6-for-10. “We got off to a great start tonight with moving the ball and using our strength inside.” said Hoffman. “Our players off the bench really helped us out when we had Steph (Blockberger) and Ashley (Watkins) got two fouls in the first half our free throws really helped us out also.” The Apaches came to within six during the final leg of the game, but the Lady Cats would not allow them to ever take the lead. Jefferson seemed to go into a distracted mode of play with having three straight turnovers in consecutive times down the floor which had not been Jefferson through the whole game. They then seemed to come back after Coach Singer received a technical giving Jefferson two shoots and the ball. After Watkins made the two shoots the Wildcats never let down their guard again. “At the start of the 4th quarter we started trying to force the ball instead of taking our time and finding open things,” added Coach Hoffman. Even though the turnovers for Jefferson came in the final stretch of the game the real down fall for them seemed to be the third quarter with only scoring four points the whole quarter. Bridget Culp and Emily Fought were both key players coming off the bench for Jefferson tonight with their rebounding and ability to score. Both teams handled the ball well tonight with each having about one quarter where they struggled a little more than the others. The first half of the game was a quick pace game with Jefferson using their full court and half court press back into zone, but also mixing some man to man in as well. Katelyn Samples was the threat from the outside for the Wildcats, but it seemed when they would deny her shot it would open up Tina Schroeder on the inside.  Schroeder was Fairview’s leading scorer with 12 and Samples was not far behind with 8. Jefferson’s Stacey Blockberger played great defense seeming to be forcing turnovers and helping to recover the ball.  Although Emily VanGrootheest fouled out in the fourth quarter she was a key player for Jefferson underneath on the defensive end with rebounding. “All seven of are girls are playing well right now and their playing as a group. I am very pleased with the start to our season with a young team after losing seven seniors last year.” Added Coach Hoffman Fairview is now 0-1 with Jefferson their season opener. In the opener they shot 3-for-13 (23%) from 3 point land, 10-for-38 (26%) from field goal range, and 7-for-12 (58%) from the foul line. The Apaches were lead in scoring by Tina Schroeder with 12 and being the only Lady Apache to make it to double digits, but Katelyn Samples just missed with 8 points. Jefferson shot 1 for 13 (8%) from 3-point land, 13 for 35 (37%) field goals, and 23 for 35 (66%) one pointers. Jefferson was led in scoring by Jenna Miller with 14 she also had two teammates in double digits with her at 10 each Ashley Watkins and Stephanie Blockberger. The Wildcats increased their record to 2-0 and are out of action until Dec. 1 when they travel to Kalida for a 1 p.m. JV start time. In JV action Shelbi Brown lead all scorers again with 15 to help the Lady Cats overcome the Lady Apaches 27-14 to increase the JV record to 1-1.