WAGNER OPENS 2021-2022 AT #1 WINNER

A day after the first storm of the year and a day delay to the start of the 2022 basketball season, Wagner hit the road to a much-anticipated matchup with #1 Lady Winner Warriors. The first quarter would see the Lady Raiders pull out to a 12-10 lead. Winner would capitalize on Wagner’s 13 turnovers in the first half and take a 23-20 lead into half. Wagner would crank up the heat on defense allowing the Warriors to only manage 11 points the entire second half where the Raiders would score 21. Wagner would shoot 15-39 for 39% while holding Winner to 14-47 for 28%. Wagner would dominate the glass with a 39-22 advantage. Wagner would commit 21 turnovers compared to 11 from Winner. The Raiders would hit 6-10 from the charity stripe while Winner would struggle 4-15. Emma Yost led all scorers with a double-double scoring 20 points, grabbing 13 boards, and dishing out 3 assists. Ashlyn Koupal would add 7 points, grabbing 6 boards, dish out 2 assists, and come away with 2 blocks off the bench. Lydia Yost would net 6 points and dish out 2 assists. Shalayne Nagel would add 3 points, grab 9 boards, dish out 3 assists and come away with a team high 3 steals. Macy Koupal would also add 3 points, grab 6 boards, dish out 2 assists, and grab 2 steals. Eve Zephier rounded out the scoring with 2 points and dishing out 2 assists. “I can’t say enough about our girls! First of all, our goal was to control the glass and we did an excellent job of doing that. Second, we had to contain their scorer and use a variety of schemes to do that without giving up open looks to their off guards. Shalayne and Ashlyn drew the lucky straws to do just that allowing her to only score 18 for the game but only 5 the entire second half. 2 coming in the first 10 seconds on a set play. We turned it over a bit more than desired, but I thought when it came down to crunch time, we did a great job in the 4th quarter of taking care of the ball. We hit some big shots from the perimeter, but we also had a lot that were right there and just didn’t fall.”