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The Lady Wildcats saw their season come to an end on Wednesday as Springwood fell to Glenwood 44-24 in the AISA 3A semifinals. 

At times, Springwood’s defense completely shut the Gator’s offense down, but the Wildcats could never get going on the offensive side.

Springwood continually looked to shoot from behind the arc, but the shots were not falling. The Wildcats connected on just three of their 21 attempts from three. 

“We couldn’t score,” Springwood coach Lisa Sampson said. 

“I thought we played a really good first half. I thought we had a really good play defensively. They kind of figured out our defense in the second half. I think it really came down to our offense and our shot selection. This is a hard gym to shoot in, and we told them that. Credit to Glenwood, they’re a good team. We gave them one half of basketball, but basketball is a game of two halves.” 

After trailing 25-12 at halftime, the Wildcats dominated on the defensive side to start the third period. Springwood held the Gators scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half, but they were unable to take advantage of that momentum and still trailed by 12 heading into the final eight minutes. 

Glenwood was not led by one dominant scorer in the game, but it was TK Davis’ size that had the biggest impact on both sides. Davis finished with just four points, but she made it tough for the Wildcats to find space inside. 

Shalexia Little, EJ Matthews and Tori Patillo were the only players in the scoring column for Springwood. Patillo led the way with nine points while Little and Matthews followed with eight and seven points respectively. Little added six rebounds, five steals and a block while Patillo finished with nine rebounds and four steals. 

Little, Matthews and Patillo will return next year, and the three will be the building blocks of the Wildcats’ program next season. 

“Only graduating three seniors,” Sampson said. “We’ve just got to build on the positives. Getting here is great, but hopefully, this will give them a taste to want a little bit more next year.”