By Andrew Petyak
New Castle News

The District 10 playoff aspirations took a hit for the Wilmington High girls basketball team last night.

The Lady Greyhounds dropped a 41-29 decision against visiting Region 2-AA foe Mercer.

Wilmington (4-5 region, 6-11 overall) currently is fourth in the region with four games left and will need help to make the postseason.

“We’re just trying to get to .500,” Lady Greyhounds coach Brandy Sanford said. “I’m not too sure if we have a shot anymore for the playoffs.”

Wilmington struggled on both sides of the ball in the first half and went into halftime down 25-13.

“We couldn’t play offense and we couldn’t play defense. We were not mentally tough,” Sanford said. “We beat ourselves. They had some nice players and good shooters. We mentally were not prepared for the game.”

Lexie Arkwright scored a game-high 20 points, including five 3-pointers, for the Lady Mustangs (6-2, 13-5). She notched 14 points in the first meeting between the two teams this season, a 45-36 Mercer victory.

“She shot the three well. She’s a solid player offensively,” Sanford said. “They were all threes because we didn’t play defense. We played 3-2 and man-to-man, but we just didn’t step up and stop them.”

Alanna Elliott registered a team-high nine points for the Lady Greyhounds. She paces the team with a 10.2 points a game scoring average. Carly Christofferson followed with seven.

Said Sanford of her team’s offensive performance, “We didn’t set screens. We turned the ball over too many times. We just couldn’t get in to make the shots.”