CUBA — Cuba High School’s girl’s basketball team played a trio of games on Dec. 8, Dec. 9 and Dec. 12 against Bayless, St. James and Lesterville, respectively. The Lady Wildcats won handedly against Bayless, defeated St. James in a close matchup before dominating Lesterville. Each game is detailed below.

  Cuba (6-0) then competed in the Orchard Farm Varsity Tournament which began on Dec. 15 in a matchup against Ft. Zumwalt North, which will be detailed in next week’s edition. The rest of the tournament’s games and times are TBD on the first matchup against FZN, and will also be detailed in next week’s edition.

Dec. 8 vs. Bayless

Cuba High School’s girl’s basketball team made another trek to the St. Louis area on Dec. 8 to take on Bayless. The game was originally scheduled for Dec. 2, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

The Lady Wildcats’ swarming defense traveled with them and dictated the game from the opening tip-off to the final buzzer. Cuba didn’t give up more than nine points in one quarter and powered the Lady Cats to a gritty 45-21 victory over the Lady Bronchos for their fourth win in a row to start the season.

The Lady Wildcats led from the start and never trailed as they outscored Bayless 10-2 in the opening frame. Cuba gave up just four points in the second quarter and took a 21-6 lead heading into halftime. The Lady Cats didn’t overwhelm Bayless offensively and shot just 28% from the field, but did enough by scoring in double-digits in each quarter to earn the victory. 

Cuba was led by junior guard Leah Schmidt, who scored a game-high 19 points and played every minute of the game. Schmidt nearly recorded a double-double after making a game-and season-high eight steals in the contest. She also added three assists and three offensive rebounds to her productive statline. Bayless grabbed 10 more defensive rebounds than Cuba, but the Lady Wildcats battled to snag 20 offensive rebounds to continuously give themselves second and third chances at the possessions. 

Cuba’s defense was relentless, forcing a whopping 38 turnovers that led to 25 points. Five Lady Cats recorded multiple steals on the evening including freshman Addison McGinnis, who recorded an early career-high seven thefts. McGinnis scored six points, snagged nine rebounds and blocked a shot to add to her stat-stuffing evening. 

  Mya Garbo scored eight points and had a trio of rebounds and steals on the evening. Brooklyn Tate knocked down Cuba’s only three-pointer of the game and finished with seven points, seven rebounds and three steals. Makayla Wells scored three on a basket and a free throw and Jaylen Haffer scored two on a layup. Kylie Dulaney didn’t score but grabbed five rebounds and snagged a steal. 

Because of the postponed game, the Lady Wildcats had a quick turnaround and played the next evening on Dec. 9 as Cuba hosted St. James in its home opener.

Dec. 9 vs. St. James

The Lady Wildcats came out of the gates strong against the Lady Tigers and got out to an early lead. Cuba was up 13-7 when Garbo drained a three-pointer to make it a 16-7 game with 2:15 left in the first quarter. Each team scored a basket before the quarter ended and the Lady Cats headed into the second quarter up 18-9. 

St. James head coach Terry Wells expressed his frustrations to his team for giving up 18 points in the frame.

“We can’t win if we give up 18 points a quarter,” Wells told his team. “I don’t care who we’re playing, that can’t happen.”

The Lady Tigers listened to their coach and tightened the gap in the second quarter. Cuba led 23-19 as the clock wound down in the second quarter, but Tate knocked down a shot from deep to give the Lady Cats a 26-19 heading into halftime. 

St. James regained the momentum in the third quarter as the Lady Tiger’s defense tightened. St. James outscored Cuba 13-5 in the third quarter as Cuba missed numerous free throws that would’ve expanded their lead. Payge Kemnitzer hit a three-pointer to give St. James its first lead of the night at 29-28 with 28 seconds left in the third quarter. But the Lady Cats didn’t waver and Haffer made a basket in transition to give Cuba a 30-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter.    

The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle where each bucket was fought for. The Wildcats led 35-32 when Garbo knocked down a three-pointer from the corner to give Cuba a 38-32 lead with 3:12 remaining in the game. The score remained the same until Schmidt knocked down a pair of clutch free throws to make it a 40-32 game with 30 seconds left. Avery Campbell then hit a three for St. James, making it a 40-35 game with 17.8 seconds left. But that was too little too late, and the Lady Cats closed it out and came out with an impressive 41-35 win. 

Each team turned the ball over 15 times, but Cuba scored 14 points off of those turnovers, compared to seven points scored off turnovers from St. James, which was the difference in the game.

Cuba’s victory over St. James was the first time the Lady Cats defeated the Lady Tigers’ powerhouse program since 2017. Cuba head coach Evin Farris spoke afterward about how his team was able to get such a significant victory. 

“I think it was our intensity and effort,” Farris said. “I told them that we wanted to stay in attack mode. We wanted to play with energy and effort and let our game just play itself out. When we play with energy and effort, we’re at our best.” 

The Lady Cats have played with ferocious intensity on defense so far this season, and have yet to give up more than 37 points a game. Farris said that his team has taken defense seriously since the first day of practice, and prides itself on helping each other out on that end. 

“The girls take it very seriously whenever we get our opportunities to scrimmage and get after it,” Farris said. “They just really buy into helping each other out. I told them 50-50 balls are actually not 50-50 because they’re going to go our way if we have that mindset. And that’s what they do.”

Haffer played a strong all-around game, recording her first double-double of the season, and finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Schmidt scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out two assists and had two steals. Garbo knocked down a pair of three-pointers and two free throws to finish with eight points, four rebounds and two steals. Tate added seven points, seven rebounds and two steals. McGinnis scored four and Dulaney added two to round out the scoring for the Lady Wildcats. Campbell led St. James with 12 points, Adalee Richardson added 10 points and Kemnitzer finished with six points.

The Lady Cats are 5-0 for the first time since the 2015-16 season. When asked how it feels to be 5-0, Farris said, “It feels great, but we can’t stop now.”

Dec. 12 vs. Lesterville

Cuba certainly didn’t stop playing well against Lesterville. The only way to describe the Dec. 12 game would be utter domination. Lesterville came into the game with a 2-1 record with double-digit victories over Kingston and Bourbon, but were no match for the Lady Wildcats.

The Lady Wildcats led 27-0 after the first quarter and 45-0 at halftime. Farris called off his full-court press halfway through the second quarter, but Cuba’s defense still didn’t crack. Lesterville finally scored their first basket with four minutes remaining in the third quarter to make it a 50-2 game. Cuba led 65-4 at the end of the third quarter and finished the game with a 75-9 exclamation point victory.

The Lady Cats had a season-high four players score in double figures. Schmidt made 10 baskets and two free throws to finish with a game-high 22 points to top the Lady Cats’ score sheet. Garbo poured in 19 points, Haffer scored 10 of her 11 points in the first half and McGinnis scored a season-high 10 points. Tate added seven and Wells chipped in six for the Lady Cats in their decisive win.