Healthy Lady Mustangs ready to play

Bennett Horne/McDonald County Press McDonald County junior Katelynn Townsend (left) returned from a foot injury to play in her team's game at Neosho on Jan. 26. Townsend and the Lady Mustangs were scheduled to face Seneca's junior varsity squad tonight in a tournament at Seneca.
Bennett Horne/McDonald County Press McDonald County junior Katelynn Townsend (left) returned from a foot injury to play in her team's game at Neosho on Jan. 26. Townsend and the Lady Mustangs were scheduled to face Seneca's junior varsity squad tonight in a tournament at Seneca.

ANDERSON -- The good news is this run of inclement weather that has kept McDonald County off the basketball court has allowed the Lady Mustangs to get healthy. The bad news is it's kept them from getting into a rhythm during a crucial stretch of the season.

"If there's a positive it's that we should be completely healthy," McDonald County coach Sean Crane said Tuesday. "Katelynn (Townsend) came back and played some Thursday night against against Neosho and looked pretty healthy. Riley Anderson's been sick but was able to get in a full practice on Friday."

The Lady Mustangs are now 6-11 overall and 2-1 in the Big 8 West. They've notched conference wins over Monette and East Newton while losing to Seneca.

"The time off is not great obviously because we want to get into the swing of playing games on a regular basis," said Crane. "But other people have been hit, too. It's not like we're the only ones going through this situation. We're not the only ones facing these challenges."

McDonald County's last game was against Neosho on Thursday, Jan. 26. Townsend, a junior guard, was able to play in that game after suffering a foot sprain earlier in the month. Anderson was back on the court when the team worked out the next day.

"We practiced Friday and then took the weekend off," Crane said. "We were supposed to play in the first round of the Seneca tournament on Monday, but then that game got cancelled. It looks like we'll be playing that game (Wednesday night), and they've had a couple of teams drop out so they've entered their jayvee team in the tournament and we drew them in the opening round. If we win our second game should be against Aurora Thursday night and then we'll be playing for a 'place' game on Saturday."