Lady Bulldogs push pace

ST. IGNATIUS - Speed was the name of the game for the Lady

Bulldogs last weekend. With head coach Les Rice and the Mission

girls basketball team trying to figure out what kind of identity

they should have for the season, the squad ran its opponents up and

down the court.

ST. IGNATIUS - Speed was the name of the game for the Lady Bulldogs last weekend. With head coach Les Rice and the Mission girls basketball team trying to figure out what kind of identity they should have for the season, the squad ran its opponents up and down the court.

While first weekend jitters affected the shooting performance of the Lady Bulldogs on Friday against Alberton, the high tempo offense still made a mark. In the first four minutes of the game, no one scored but Mission outshot Alberton 19-1.

"Most of them were really good shots," head coach Les Rice said. "We played really well, we should have scored 65 points in that game."

The Lady Bulldogs, who pride themselves on their defense, were able to hold Alberton to single digit scoring for every single quarter. Mission was able to weather their shooting woes in the first quarter, scoring 15 in the second and going into halftime with a 21-10 lead.

Senior Kyla Mitchell and sophomore Stephanie Lewandowski scored eight points and the Lady Bulldogs cruised to a 40-22 season opening victory.

Mission got its offense really going in their homeopener on Saturday against Superior. Shooting 50 percent from the field, the Lady Bulldogs scorched the Bobcats for a 63-54 victory.

"I was pleased with the game but I was not happy with the amount of turnovers," Rice said.

When asked if that's the kind of tempo he wants from his team, Rice said it's still up in the air.

"We're not sure yet," Rice said. "We got a lot of new characters. We're trying to figure out our style."

One thing that was certainly up in the air was Mitchell, who scored 22 points, collected 14 rebounds, went 6-6 from the free point line and had two steals.

"She did all of those stats in the final three quarters," Rice said.

The Lady Bulldogs jumped ahead with a 9-2 run at the start of the first quarter and then posted an 18-10 lead at the end of it. Junior Cecelia Koskela was particularly impressive, scoring Mission's last six points of that quarter en route to a 12-point performance.

Mission posted a 17-point second quarter and held a 35-24 halftime lead. While Superior did try to make a run at them in the fourth quarter after pulling to within 10, Mitchell took over with eight points in the period, including the Lady Bulldogs' final six points of the game. Rice said she was also the only player without a turnover in the game.

With Christmas break looming, but still some important games to go this week, Rice said he's going to have to juggle practice times since everyone is so busy with holiday activities.

"It's tough," Rice said. "December is a crazy month."

Friday's game

Mission - 6 - 15 - 12 - 7 - 40

Alberton - 1 - 9 - 8 - 4 - 22

Lady Bulldogs scoring - Kyla Mitchell 8, Stephanie Lewandowski 8, Cecelia Koskela 7, Loren Erickson 6, Bryanna Steele 4, LaGlenn Mitchell 4, Donilyn Rossbach 2, Ashley Courville 1

Saturday's game

Superior - 10 - 14 -15 - 15 - 54

Mission - 18 - 17 - 14 - 14 - 63

Lady Bulldogs scoring-

Kyla Mitchell 22, Cecelia Koskela 12, Stephanie Lewandowski 8, Ashley Courville 6, Bryanna Steele 6, Loren Erickson 5, Donilyn Rossbach 4