LADY RAIDERS FINISH EIGHTH AT STATE TOURNAMENT

The Lady Raiders opened up the late night session on day 1 by taking on the defending state Champs the Sioux Falls ChristianChargers. Itwasa very physical game from the go as SFC would take a 15-12 lead after the first quarter. Wagner would battle back to knot the game up at 23-23 at half. The last 1:20 of the third would be the tale tell of the game as the Chargers would capitalize on turnovers and convert them into lay-ups to take a 39-31 lead into the 4th quarter. Wagner would get the lead back down to as many as 6 but couldn’t get any closer and lose 61-49. Ashlyn Koupal would lead the Raiders with 15 points, 12 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals. Braxton Nedved would add 12 points and dish out a team high 4 assists. Hannah Holzbauer would be the third Raider in double figures with 10 points, 2 boards and 2 assists. Hayden Knudsen would finish with 9 points while Mateya Bruguier would round out the scoring with 3 points. Ravyn Medricky would grab 5 boards. Wagner was 17-43 for 40% while the Chargers were 28-57 for 49%. The Chargers out rebounded Wagner 29-23 and committed 15 turnovers compared to 18 from Wagner. “This was a tough match up out of the gate at the tournament. Reigning champs that had something to prove and we were right there. They capitalized with points on our turnovers with lay-ups in transition where when they turned it over we had to score in the half court which was very difficult at times. I though we had balanced scoring through out but we were forced a lot from the perimeter. They were 25-44 from 2 point where we only attempted 14 shots inside the 3 point line and converted on 7 of them. “