KOUPAL ERUPTS FOR 31 AS LADY RAIDERS KNOCK OFF NO. 5 ETHAN

The Lady Raiders Hosted the #5 Ethan Rustlers last Tuesday night in girls basketball action. Ethan would jump out to a 6-2 lead as Wagner could counter back with a 13-11 lead after the first. Ethan would continue to know down perimeter shots and take a 26-28 lead into the half. Ethan would play their typical junk defenses to try to slow down Wagner’s offense. It was a balanced attack effort the first half for the Raiders with scoring coming from all three levels. Ethan would manage to hold Wagner at bay for only so long. Ashlyn Koupal would explode in the third quarter with 19 straight for Wagner as they would take a 9 point lead into the 4th. Wagner would play even with Ethan the rest of the way to hold them off for a 59-50 victory. Wagner would shoot 19-37 for the field for 51% while the Rustlers would go 18-55 for 33%. The name of the game would be form the charity stripe where Wagner was 13-17 compared to 1-4 for Ethan. Wagner would dominate the glass 31-21 despite struggling the 1st quarter in rebounding. Wagner would commit 13 turnovers compared to 10 from Ethan. Ashlyn Koupal would lead all scorers with 31 points, 18 boards, and 3 blocks. Braxton Nedved would tally 11 points and Ravyn Medricky would finish with 9 points and grab 6 boards. Hayden Knudsen would finish with 6 points and dish out 3 assists. Hannah Holzbauer would round out the scoring with 2 points, grab 4 boards and dish out a team high 5 assists. “This was a huge game for us when it comes to seeding at the end of the season. This by far was out best team efforts when it comes to team scoring. We had multiple people knock down shots that put a lot more pressure on their defense. We were strong with the ball and got them in foul trouble. We did a great job of eliminating paint shots for them as they were only 5-17 from inside the arc but man they jacked up the three’s shooting 38 and making 13 which is a decent clip. They had kids that needed to make shots as we did a decent job of limiting their 2 shooters to open looks. The grind will continue as we will get 4 games starting on Thursday in 9 days and need to continue to build confidence and knock down shots.”