BY CHARLES CHANEY

EL DORADO, Kansas — No moral victories for the El Dorado Lady Cats.

Despite the 45-41 loss to Chaparral to open their season on Monday, El Dorado is upset with the loss.

“That was not a happy locker room,” El Dorado head coach Brett Gunderson said. “That’s a good thing.”

Despite going 1-20 last season and not a single senior on the roster, the Lady Cats showed nice promise in their season opener .

El Dorado boasts tons of returning experience in Jenna Hadley, Addie Hull and Kam Parker to name a few. They welcomed in Sterling transfer Ellee Bressler, they put up a good fight, even leading by double digits in the game.

They were up 12-2 early in the first quarter off a three from Kam Parker and a few free throws from Hadley. However, the size of Chaparral (12-10 last season) was a little too much. Last year’s double-double leader for the Roadrunners found early and often she could steal second chance points and get to the line. While she struggled at the line, it was her ability to just keep possessions alive that helped Chaparral fight back.

“She’s really good,” Gunderson said. “She averaged I think a double-double last year. They lost some of their talent from a year ago but still a dang good team.”

The Lady Cats led 19-13 at the break and it felt like this could be their night as they quickly pushed it to double digits, going up 25-15 with 4:28 remaining in the third but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Just not yet.

El Dorado would go on and miss 12 consecutive free throws and it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter when Hadley sank two to tie it near the end of regulation did the drought in.

“We left some points out there for sure,” Gunderson said. “We make a couple and we don’t even go to overtime.”

Hadley’s two free throws with 30 seconds remaining in regulation gave El Dorado a chance in overtime but by that point, the deep shots that Chaparral had been missing all game finally found the bottom of the net and they were able to keep their distance from the Lady Cats (0-1).

“It’s nice building blocks,” Gunderson said. “We had our chances and now we have to go out there and find a way to win games.”

Hadley finished with a career high 21 points in the loss. She also was a game best, 10 of 14, at the free throw line.

Chaparral 45, El Dorado 41 OT/F

Chaparral 4 9 10 12 10 – 45
El Dorado 12 7 10 6 6 – 41

Chaparral (1-0): 45

Hazel 0 (1) 1-2 – 4; Harding 3 0-2 – 6; Misak 0 (1) 0-2 – 3; K. Swartz 7 1-8 – 15; Stark 2 0-2 – 4; E. Swartz 2 2-4 – 6; Maka 3 1-2 – 7. TOTALS: 17 (2) 5-22 – 45.

El Dorado (0-1): 41

Hadley 4 (1) 10-14 – 21; Parker 1 (1) 1-3 – 6; Ascott 2 0-2 – 4; Kemobi 2 1-4 – 5; Bressler 2 1-6 – 5. TOTALS: 11 (2) 13-29 – 41.