Lady Eagles basketball team fight to end, creates strong foundation for next year

The Boulder City High School girls basketball program fell short of postseason expectations this past season, concluding the year with a fifth-place finish in the Division I-A Sunrise standings.

Finishing with a 11-15 overall record this season, the Lady Eagles might have found themselves packing up their lockers a week early, but set a foundation throughout the season that will merit future success.

"Obviously we had very high expectations coming into the year," said head coach Paul Dosch. "It's unfortunate that the season played out differently than we had hoped, but I'm proud of the way the girls handled themselves and the way they faced adversity."

Closing out the season on a high note despite a pair of losses, the Lady Eagles took the league's top two teams, Chaparral and Virgin Valley, to the wire in a last-ditch effort of displaying Boulder City pride.

"These girls have a strong sense of pride to them," Dosch said. "People can look at our record and say we underachieved, but when I look at this group, I see a team that came together and fought to the end. Statistically it might have been a down year, but this has been one of my favorite groups. One that makes me excited about the future."

Against the Division I-A Sunrise league champion Cowboys, the Lady Eagles battled their way through Chaparral to the closing minutes, bowing out in a great 56-49 showing.

The present of proposed-league-player-of-the-year senior guard Megan Morton was on full display for Boulder City in her final week with the program, scoring a game-high 21 points. Concluding her storied prep career, Morton flashed her scoring brilliance one last time against second-seeded Virgin Valley, closing out the year with a game-high 23 points in the Lady Eagles' 52-45 loss.

A newly announced Cumberland University commit, Morton concluded her senior campaign with a state-best 21.6 points per game, regardless of classification, with 8.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

"There's no doubt she special," Dosch said. "She can score in a variety of ways. She did a little bit of everything for us this season. She'll surely be missed."

A little of what Morton provided to the team was senior leadership, which proved vital to the development of not only this season's roster, but for future success. Doing her best to take freshman Hannah Estes under her wing, the Lady Eagles look capable of contending for future playoff berths following Morton's departure.

"This season has been special for me," Morton said. "I gained the experience of being a leader, one who tries to set an example, and make our team better for the present and future. I think we set the program up for success."

The future was on full display throughout the Lady Eagles' past two outing, where Estes chipped in eight points against the Cowboys, second only to Morton's contributions, while adding in five points against the Bulldogs.

"We're real excited about the future of our program," Dosch added. "Hannah made strides throughout each week and it looks as if we have a real player on our hands. We need to get her in the weight room a little and continue to develop her game, but I think we found ourselves a real gem to build with."

Estes isn't the only returning piece expected to make contributions next season for the Lady Eagles, with juniors Julia Worrall and Alea Lehr, sophomore Jerra Hinson and freshman Setia Cox all expected to be back next season.

"I'm confident in the strides our girls made throughout the season," Dosch concluded. "We learned a lot about ourselves this season. Closing out the season, we finally started to put it together in practice, something I'm hopeful will transition into the summer and into next winter."

Contact Robert Vendettoli at BCRsports@gmail.com.