If the Baker Wildcats and the Oklahoma Panhandle State Aggies were hoping for an early Christmas present this past week with a win over the Lady Blues, they were certainly disappointed. The Lady Blues left the Cats and Aggies with lumps of coal and a trip back to the drawing board, as the Lady Blues pounded the Cats 93-38 last Monday and two days later the Aggies 94-53.

“It’s definitely good going into conference with our heads up and confident. We know competition will be a lot harder in conference, so it is nice to get these games under our belt and get the butterflies out of the way and play with each other getting use to each other,” said senior forward Dani McHenry.

McHenry had a career high 13 points against the Aggies on Wednesday night, closing the final chapter in what was a tremendous offensive week for the Lady Blues. On Monday night against Baker, the Lady Blues shot 61.4 percent from the field, and had four players in double figures.

“Thats the best you can get. You come out with 50 or better from the field, that’s pretty good, but we can live with 60 percent,” said senior guard Jennifer Harris.

Harris had 20 points in the 93-38 routing of Baker Monday, and leads the team in scoring with 19.8 points per game.

“We tried to use this game, to practice our defense. We went into a zone, and we never run the zone. But this is a good game to practice your defense and offense through. We threw in a play today, that we ran, but didn’t run it a lot. This is a kind of game that we practice on things and a good game to try things you have never done before,” said Harris.

The Lady Blues did accomplish something they have never done before Monday, holding the Cats below 40 points, the first time the Lady Blues have done that to a team all year.

“The only negative is that we haven’t been tested yet. One day we’re going to be tested and we’re going to have to figure out how to play that game too. I think we have a lot of kids’ heads up right now, playing well,offensively. Defensively we’re good at some points of the game. We’ll just have to wait until competition comes and we’ll see what these games have done for us,” said head coach Ron McHenry.

The Lady Blues first test may come this Saturday, as they open up conference play against the Jennies of Central Missouri State. The Jennies are 5-1 so far this season, coming off a trip to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional tournament last year.

“They are a good team, and they are going to be tough, and we always play a good game against them. It’s just going to be getting into practice and competing against each other. It’s good to practice against ourselves, and we’re going to play the golf team again, and that will help us get ready against CMSU,” said Dani McHenry.

The Lady Blues have a 10-day span without playing a game before tipping off against the Jennies on Saturday.

“We just have to be focused this next week in practice. We have a while before we play. Keep working on our defense and rebounding, coach stresses that a lot. Hopefully continue to improve those areas, along with all the other areas, and we can win,” said junior forward Brooke Ubelaker.

Ubelaker had a combined fifteen points in last year’s sweeping of the Jennies, 59-57, 61-53. But the Jennies return three starters off of last year’s squad and would like nothing more to avenge their loss against the Lady Blues this Saturday.

“They [Wasburn] are a chance to get a big test on the road early. If you can get a “W” there, you are going to feel pretty good about yourself going into Christmas break. If we don’t get a “W” there, we are going to have our work cut out for us the rest of the time. It’s a road game and hopefully we’ll do a better job of beating the top teams in the conference this year than we did last year,” said Jennies Head Coach Dave Slifer.