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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
FULTON — Caston sophomore guard Madi Douglass played the first three games of the season with walking pneumonia.
Her temperature was 101 degrees the day before she played against Rochester on Nov. 9.
But against sectional rival North White Friday, it was Douglass who added to the Lady Vikings’ ails as she scored a career-high 30 points and added 11 steals as the Lady Comets prevailed 45-34.
Autumn Reif led visiting North White with 15, and Morgan Carter added 12. Foul trouble limited Reif, who picked up her fourth foul with 2:27 left in the third quarter.
Caston improved to 1-3. They have won the last three regular season meetings with longtime nemesis North White, who fell to 1-1.
North White committed 23 turnovers while Caston had 19.
“She’s not 100% yet, but the team isn’t 100% yet, but we’re getting there,” Caston coach Josh Douglass said. “We saw it in the Peru game (a 44-33 loss on Tuesday). We had her air more. We realized we’re not in shape yet, but we’re working on getting in shape. So that’s big. When you finally get everybody breathing oxygen again from walking pneumonia on the team, you’re able to get a few more things and do a little bit better.”
North White cut what had been a 17-point deficit down to 39-34 after a Carter 3-pointer with 2:27 left, but they never scored again.
Meanwhile, Douglass weaved behind the North White defense on an overplay and wrong-footed a driving layup off the glass.
After Reif missed in the post, Allison Craig missed, and Grace Colvin would be fouled with 58.3 seconds left. She missed both free throws, but Craig rebounded the second miss and kissed a reverse layup off the glass to make it 43-34.
Douglass completed the scoring with two free throws with 35 seconds left.
Douglass’ previous career-high was 23 in her first prep game at Argos in November 2023. Her previous season high was 14 against West Central in the opener.
She outscored the entire North White team 21-13 in the first half.
She hit three 3-pointers in the first half – one was a 25-footer from the volleyball line – but also got three breakaway layups off her own steals, including two in quick succession that pushed the lead to 24-7.
“I just got off battling walking pneumonia,” Madi Douglass said. “So my first three games, I played with walking pneumonia, so tonight I was like, I need to have a good game. I’m feeling a lot better. I’m healthy. I’m ready to go. Let’s go get a win.”
North White coach Bryan Heimlich warned his players about Douglass.
“She’s a good player, and we knew that coming in,” Heimlich said. “She struggled from 3 coming into this game, but we told the girls watching her, she’s getting her shots. You can’t let her get going. I thought early on, we let her hit a couple, and then, when somebody gets confidence like that and they’re good shooters, now they’re thinking they can hit everything.”
Olivia Thomas drained a 3 from the right corner with 52 seconds left in the half to make it 27-11, and the lead stayed at 14 at the half.
But North White scored the first eight points of the second half and trailed 29-23 with 3:02 left in the third quarter after a Kaylyn Applegate driving banker that dropped after hanging on the rim as she was fouled.
Applegate missed the free throw, and neither team scored the rest of the quarter.
Colvin and Craig had one point combined in the first three quarters, but they combined for nine in the fourth.
On the first possession of the fourth, Colvin drained a 3-pointer, and after fellow freshman Ella Hunt hit her own 3 for North White, Colvin drove and scored with the left hand to get the lead to 34-26.
“Huge,” coach Douglass said of Colvin’s fourth quarter baskets. “She’s a freshman, and we talked about the first couple games and the Rochester game especially, she never drove, right? She had the baseline drive all day long. She drove in eighth grade, but every game, she’s going to do something a little bit better. The 3 she hit, she had her feet set, right? High ball screen, came off, squared up and shot it. Right now, she’s shooting a lot of shots off balance. She’s very capable of knocking it down. It’s just a matter of being sped up, trying to slow herself down. Driving to the basket was huge. Yep, she’s going to turn it over some, but we’ve got to have her driving, so she gets that confidence.”
Another Douglass steal and transition finish with the left hand made it a 10-point game.
A Douglass free throw with 4:37 left got the lead to 11.
Meanwhile, Craig was trying to defend North White’s star post player Reif with a brace covering her bad left shoulder. She left with 2:15 left in the first half in agony but reappeared with an ice pack on the bench. By the fourth quarter, she was back in, trying to provide resistance against Reif.
“I’ve got a lot of gritty girls on this team, don’t I?” coach Douglass said. “Playing through sickness. Dislocating your shoulder, coming back in the fourth quarter to get an offensive rebound and a reverse layup, going left, making one. Those were huge baskets when they were making a run. And we weren’t relying on Madi.”
Caston sophomore 6-1 post player Natalie Warner suffered a right knee injury against West Central in the season opener Nov. 7. She has not played since. Coach Douglass said she has undergone an MRI and is waiting for the results.
But things are better for the Lady Comets when Madi Douglass, the lone returning starter from last year’s regional champions, is feeling better. She said her illness had to do with her shooting woes in the first three games. She also said improved health led to better defense. She was reading the North White point guard’s eyes and flew to the ball for steals.
“I was really struggling with it in the beginning,” Madi Douglass said. “I honestly think a lot of it is what me and Dad talked about, which is kind of being out of shape, out of shape being sick, like I couldn’t breath. Being able to breathe definitely helped me tonight. Knocking it down felt really good. It was my first one of the season.”
Caston also won the JV game 29-13.
Caston 45, North White 34
NORTH WHITE (34) (1-1)
Morgan Carter 4 1-2 12, Abigail Tribbett 0 0-0 0, Kaylyn Applegate 1 1-3 3, Ella Hunt 1 1-2 4, Autumn Reif 6 3-3 15, Mady Westerhouse 0 0-0 0, Katy Westerhouse 0 0-0 0
TEAM: 12 6-10 34
CASTON (45) (1-3)
Grace Colvin 2 0-2 5, Kylee Logan 0 0-0 0, Madi Douglass 10 7-11 30, Olivia Thomas 1 0-0 3, Allison Craig 2 1-2 5, Kaitie Hutsell 0 0-0 0, Gigi Berry 1 0-0 2
TEAM: 16 8-15 45
Three-point field goals:
North White 4 (Carter 3, Hunt),
Caston 5 (Douglass 3, Colvin, Thomas)
Total fouls: North White 16, Caston 15
Turnovers: North White 23, Caston 19
Score by quarters
North White 3 10 10 11 – 34
Caston 10 17 2 16 – 45
JV: Caston 29, North White 13
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