While there was plenty of remembrance of the past, the North Callaway girls feel ready for the near future.

North Callaway Senior Night Photo Gallery

The Ladybirds defeated Eastern Missouri Conference and district foe Bowling Green 60-21 on Thursday largely due to the season-low points allowed by their defense. Lakyn Hartley was one of two girls recognized for Senior Night and finished with an all-around game of 14 points, six rebounds and six steals.

Head coach Andrew Klein said this game was just another example of North Callaway (13-12, 4-5 EMO) finding its identity at the right time in the penultimate game before districts this week. Bowling Green (6-17, 3-7 EMO) only scored seven points in the first half, staying cold from the field after a severely cold winter week that canceled some days of school.

“We think defense travels, but even if we’re at home, we want to be able to play defense the right way,” Klein said. “It’s just playing for each other. That’s what defense is about — selflessness, helping and talking. They did a really good job doing all those things and not giving them second-chance opportunities.”

Sophie Olsson followed with 13 points, Kymorie Myers finished with 12 points and four steals, and Livia Hartley had 10 points. North Callaway’s other senior, Natalie Shryock, added nine points.

North Callaway collected 12 steals in one of its best defensive nights of the season. The girls then took advantage of those additional scoring opportunities by dribbling past Bowling Green defenders. Even in the half court, the Ladybirds just kept beating the Lady Bobcats to the rim.

“At this stage of the year, being conditioned and being able to outrun teams matters,” Klein said. “That’s a credit to the girls showing up and taking care of their bodies, even when we’re not at practice because of snow days.”

Natalie Shryock and Lakyn Hartley were often at the top of the stat sheet for North Callaway this season. They each made big differences on the court in previous seasons while using the varsity minutes they earned since freshman year wisely. 

The duo’s efforts have earned them several awards and accomplishments in their careers, but Klein said they are players that will be missed for reasons beyond that. 

“It is more about the person than the player that they are,” Klein said. “They’re great athletes and will definitely be missed next year and years after that. I’m more so going to miss the leadership that they bring and the characters that they have.”

Klein said he will be glad to bring back several good athletes from this season’s roster, including the freshmen younger sisters of the seniors: Livia Hartley and Anna Shryock. He said the two seniors are the type of players who make it easier for everybody else, including for him and his coaching staff.

“They are very basketball smart after playing a lot of basketball,” Klein said. “They’re not ready for it to be over so we’ve got to keep winning.”

For their careers to continue, North Callaway will have to defeat Montgomery County (14-10, 8-1 EMO), who only lost its first conference game last Monday against Elsberry. The Lady Wildcats were undefeated in conference after beating North Callaway 40-32 in the Ladybirds’ third to last regular season game.

Klein said North Callaway will need to have a certain something if it doesn’t want its losing streak to Montgomery to extend to 13 games. The Ladybirds open its Class 3 District 7 tournament at 7 p.m. Thursday in Centralia, looking for their first win against the Lady Wildcats since 2018.

“We have to be really confident, and then we’ll have a good shot at beating them,” Klein said.