Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sidney's Janay Brauer battles for points against Sterling.
Sidney's Lady Raiders easily handled the Scottsbluff Lady Bearcats Friday night, but then lost a last-second heartbreaker in Sterling, CO Saturday night as they saw their record move to 14-3 in recent action on the road.
Friday night's contest against Scottsbluff went as well as could be planned, with Lady Bearcats standouts Yara Garcia and Aubrey Krentz getting out to a fast start for Scottsbluff, while Sidney made defensive adjustments to limit their impact.
After an effective first half, the Lady Raiders were up by eight, and ready to shutdown Scottsbluff's offense in the second half.
Sidney's shooting got red-hot, with the Lady Raiders dominating under the boards and getting good looks from the outside, while their defense clamped down on the Lady Bearcat's scoring threats.
A lopsided second half turned a tight contest into an easy victory for the Lady Raiders, with a final score of 63-41. Junior Meaghan Ross led the scoring with 19 points, shooting 8 for 9 from the field, and 3 out of four from 3-point range.
Saturday night turned out a different way for the Lady Raiders, falling 49-47 in a contest that saw the Sidney girls break out to a second-half double digit lead. But leading in the second half is no guarantee of success, as Sterling is well known as being a difficult place for a visiting team to be victorious.
"Sterling is a tough place to get a win," said Sidney coach Tyler Shaw.
After three and a half quarters, the Lady Tigers of Sterling started to claw their way back, and would eventually overtake Sidney at the final buzzer.
"We ran into a perfect storm in the fourth quarter. We didn't defend like we did in the first three quarters, they hit some shots, then we turned it over at some crucial times" recounted coach Shaw.
With 4:14 remaining in the fourth quarter, Sterling had battled their way back to knot the score at 40, and the Lady Raiders were reeling, and in foul trouble. But even in this position, the Lady Raiders fought back, regaining the lead in the final minutes when sophomore Taylor Dormann was fouled while driving to the basket, resulting in a three point play that put Sidney up 47-44, and caused an eruption of cheers from the Sidney faithful who made the trip down to Sterling.
The cheering was short lived, however, as on the following possession Sterling senior Cassidy Paxton drove the hoop and was fouled, resulting in a three point play of their own for Sterling, and knotted up the score at 47.
Sterling scored again, making the score 49-47 with 13.5 seconds left. The Lady Raiders were unable to get off a shot as time expired and fell by a final score of 49-47. Junioe Meaghan Ross led the Sidney attack with 17 points.
After the loss, coach Shaw said, "We failed to put together a complete game. We hope to learn from (this game) and do better for the next stretch of games."
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