Alyssa Angle takes over the leadership role with the loss of Renee Otte.

2008-09 BASKETBALL LINKS MEET THE 08-09 LADY BUCCS MEET THE 08-09 BUCCANEERS MEET THE 08-09 CHEERLEADERS

2008-09 SCHEDULE 11/28/08 11/29/08 12/04/08 12/06/08 12/11/08 12/16/08 12/18/08 12/20/08 12/27/08 01/3/09 01/06/09 01/13/09 01/22/09 01/24/09 01/26/09 01/31/09 02/02/09 02/05/09 02/09/09 02/12/09 02/26/09 Houston @ Fairlawn @ Mississinawa Versailles Newton @ Lehman @ Tri-Village Ansonia @ Bethel New Bremen Milton-Union Russia @ Tri-County North Twin Valley South Miami East @ Jackson Center Arcanum @ Bradford @ National Trail Franklin Monroe Bethel (Tournament) 18-39 L L 15-66 27-22 30-43 34-42 L 34-41 22-50 17-41 15-40 27-63 60-50 18-63 L 52-53 36-32 L 37-46 34-48 2008-09 CCC STANDINGS Team CCC ALL Miami East 12-0 15-5 Arcanum 10-2 14-6 Bethel 10-2 14-6 Tri-County North 8-4 13-7 Ansonia 8-4 10-10 Tri-Village 7-5 12-8 Franklin Monroe 6-6 7-12 National Trail 5-7 10-10 Mississinawa Valley 3-8 5-14 Covington 3-9 3-17 Newton 3-9 6-14 Twin Valley South 2-10 7-13 Bradford 0-11 1-18

JANUARY 6, 2009 - COVINGTON
In a season of misfortune, the Covington Lady Buccs received more bad news earlier in the week as senior leader Renee Otte is lost for the season.

Combine that with the loss of Shelby Hoblit prior to the season, you could say the Lady Buccs have been snake bit since day one.

"We've had some injuries that we've had to deal with, that's for sure," said Covington coach Chris Besecker. "But you have to continue to play - put it behind you and move on."

Which is what Covington did Tuesday night against a very talented Milton Union team that came into the game with an impressive 9-1 record.

"We talked before the game about the big picture," Besecker said. "I asked the girls what it means to play for this program and what the tradition means. Without hesitation they said playing hard."

The answer was what Besecker was looking for, but he wanted to see it materialize on the floor.

He got what he wanted despite the 41-17 loss.

"All season we've had individuals play hard, but I've yet to see us play hard for an entire game as a team," he continued. "Tonight is the first time all season I saw us play hard as an entire team."

And the results showed on the scoreboard in the first half as Covington trailed just 12-9 midway through the second quarter before a 7-0 run by the Lady Bulldogs pushed the score to 19-9 at the break.

"We played diamond-and-one on (Kaci) Finfrock all night," Besecker described. "They like to get out and run and we did a pretty good job of getting back defensively. What hurt us was when we would turn the ball over and they'd get a clear path to the basket. But overall, I was pretty satisfied with how we played defensively."

Another thing that pleased Besecker was the improvement on the boards.

"We only had 11 rebounds against New Bremen, which is probably an all-time low for this program," he stated. "I challenged the kids tonight to do a better job of crashing the boards and they showed a lot of improvement tonight."

But what continues to hurt the Lady Buccs is the inability to put the ball in the basket on a consistent basis and with their two leading scorers from a year ago out for the season, younger kids are thrust into learning on the fly.

"Alyssa Angle has been our best shooter so far this season, but we know we've got to find a way to get the ball inside if we want to compete," Besecker explained. "We're still struggling getting the ball inside, but when we do we're getting some open looks at the basket. They just didn't fall tonight."

Freshmen Shelby Kihm and Julianna Simon combined for 11 of Covington's 17 points as Kihm had 6 and Simon scored 5.

Covington drops to 1-10 on the season and looks for continued improvement on Saturday against Miami East.

Scoring by Quarters:
Covington ............4......9......13......17 - 17
Milton Union ........9....19......34......41 - 41

Covington Scoring:
Shelby Kihm - 6
Julianna Simon - 5
Alyssa Angle - 2
Halley Robert - 2
Chloe Shell - 2