LINGLE – The Lingle-Fort Laramie High School girls’ basketball team went 1-2 during a stretch of three games in four days, including two rescheduled contests from earlier in the winter.

The lone win for the Lady Doggers came on Saturday against the Guernsey-Sunrise Vikings.

The other two games ended in losses to Pine Bluffs and to Southeast.

On Friday afternoon, LFL overcame a 25-5 second-quarter deficit only to come up short 56-50 against the Lady Hornets.

“We dug ourselves a hole. We climbed back out of it but couldn’t pull it out in the end,” LFL coach Susan Bartel said. “They don’t give up. They keep going, and eventually, they get their game back.”

Pine Bluffs came out and scored the first seven points of the game before a 3-pointer by Ashlee Hattan put the Lady Doggers on the scoreboard.

The visitor lead topped out at 20 early in the second quarter before Lingle mounted its comeback.

LFL junior Natalie Speckner sparked the rally with a bucket with 5:04 left before halftime.

Over the remainder of the second, Lingle only gave up six more points while adding 20. It cut the deficit to 32-25 at halftime.

By the end of the third quarter, the Pine Bluffs lead was down to 42-40.

Finally, with 5:46 left in the game, Speckner gave the Lady Doggers their first lead of the game at 45-44.

Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived. The Hornets scored the next six points and never trailed again for the rest of the game.

Speckner was one steal shy of a triple double. She tallied 12 points, 14 rebounds and nine steals. Hattan and freshman Jordyn Speckner had nine points each, while freshman Skyla Wunder tossed in eight.

On Saturday, the Lady Doggers trounced Guernsey, 65-7.

The Lady Vikings took a 2-0 lead in the opening seconds of the game. It was only lead of the game and the only points of the first quarter for the visitors.

By the end of the first eight minutes, Lingle held a 21-2 lead.

“It was nice to see the girls come out strong,” Bartel said. “We’ve had a few slow starts the last few games, and it’s cost us in the end.”

It took less than two minutes into the third quarter for the Lady Doggers lead to reach 40.

With 6:11 left in the third, Baylee Skinner’s 3-pointer pushed the LFL lead to 48-7, kicking in the running clock rule for the remainder of the game.

“We were able to play the whole team today,” Bartel said. “Everyone got a lot of minutes today.”

Hattan led the team with 12 points, while senior Anne Buller and Wunder added 10 points each. Skinner tossed in nine.

Bartel hopes the Guernsey game is what can get the Lady Doggers to resolve the slow starts.

“The hope is that they can get out of whatever is going on and we can finish the season strong, continue to start stronger and stop digging holes that we have to climb out of,” she said.

On Monday night, Southeast found itself in a battle for a half with cross-county rival Lingle-Fort Laramie before pulling away in the 47-30 victory.

Hattan opened the game with a triple, and it was a lead which the Lady Doggers held for half of the first quarter.

With 3:13 left in the quarter, Southeast senior Kealy Carson tied the game at six, and on the ensuing possession Shelby Ekwall gave the Lady Cyclones their first lead of the game.

With 6:30 left in the second quarter, Brenna Herring pushed the Southeast lead to 20-8, but the Lady Doggers held the Lady Cyclones to only two points for the remainder of the half.

During the stretch, LFL battled back and with :17 left in the second quarter, Jordyn Speckner gave the Lady Doggers a 22-20 lead.

The lead was short-lived though. With time winding down on the quarter, Carson tied the game again at 22 heading into halftime.

In the third quarter, Southeast scored 14 straight points coming out of the locker room.

It took a free throw from senior Kamryn Rafferty midway through the third to get the Lady Doggers back on the scoreboard.

In all, the visitors scored only eight points in the second half.

Rafferty led the Lady Doggers with seven points, while junior Holly Leiseth added sixth. Hattan and Jordyn Speckner tossed in five each.

Lingle-Fort Laramie concludes its regular season with 2A Southeast Quadrant foes Burns at home on Friday at 5:30 p.m. and a road trip to Pine Bluffs on Saturday for a 2:30 p.m. contest.

“We have to roll through this next week strong and go straight into regionals,” Bartel said. “This team still has it. We are still doing very well. We have to bounce back from a couple games that didn’t go the way we wanted and face them the second time around stronger. Hopefully, we’ll roll into regionals with a few more wins under our belts.”