The Booneville Lady Bearcats improved their record to 14-0 on January 7 and anyone wondering what it was going to take to stop Tim Goers’ team got an answer this week.
Omicron.
A spike in coronavirus cases apparently related to the newest strain of the virus sent scores of students home to isolate or quarantine, eventually seeing schools, including Booneville, shift to alternative method of instruction (AMI) days going into a holiday weekend to hopefully slow the spread of the virus.
That came with a cost of games being postponed. The Lady Bearcats, who are 4-0 in Conference 3A-4 play, were due to face two league foes this week traveling to Waldron on Tuesday and hosting Paris on Friday. The Waldron game was reset for Monday, Jan. 31. A date for the Paris game has not been announced.
Through last Friday’s 68-32 thrashing of Hackett the Lady Bearcats have beaten their 14 opponents by an average of 22.4 points per game.
It’s truly been a team effort as eight different Lady Bearcats have posted a double digit scoring night.
After having a couple of nights with eight points and nine in the season opener, Hayley Roberts (shown) broke through with 12 against Hackett. She’s averaging 5.2 per game.
The scoring leader is Heaven Sanchez, who had a season high 24 against Hackett, pushing her season average to 14.2. Sanchez has hit double figures nine times.
Oddly, Sanchez is the only Lady Bearcat to average double figures.
Leigh Swint is the second leading scorer with six double digit nights, including 23 in the Bill Frye Classic tournament title win over Shiloh Christian. That started a three game double digit scoring streak that has her average up to 9.6 per night.
Joleigh Tate had a season high 17 in the Booneville Invitational tournament title winning game against De Queen. It is one of her five double digit scoring games and she is averaging 9.1 per game.
Lexi Franklin has scored 11 twice this season and is averaging five points per game off the bench and Layla Byrum had a double digit game against Two Rivers.
Carah Miller scored 10 in the season opener against Mansfield and Brooke Turner had 13 against Western Yell in the second game of the seasons.
Those last two games are the only games the Lady Bearcats won by less than 10 points.
The rebounding leader is Tate with 5.6 per game, with Swint grabbing 5.2 and Roberts 4.2.
Swint has the season high in boards with 12 against Vian, Okla., topping the 11 Linley Garrett grabbed against Arkoma, Okla.
In addition to being the scoring leader Sanchez is also the assist leader with 3.2 per game. Swint contributes to 2.6 per game and Tate 1.5.
Sanchez had a season high eight assists to go with those 24 points at Hackett and she had seven against Shiloh Christian. Swint has had five or more assists three times.
Swint is tops in thefts, accounting for 3.9 steals per tip with Sanchez getting 3.2 more and Tate 2.1. Sanchez has a nine steal game and Swint has both a seven and an eight steal game.
Up next for the Lady Bearcats, according to the schedule, is a game with 3A-4 foe Charleston at Bearcat Gym on Tuesday.
