The Lady Raiders traveled to the campus of the University of Mt. Marty in Yankton to take on the Lady Cougars of Viborg-Hurley this last Saturday night in girls basketball action. This was a make-up game from the Sacred Hoops Classic that was held at Augustana University January 28th. Cimpl Arena held a few more high school fans than were at the college games that happened right before. Wagner would strike first with a 3-0 lead but only see the Cougars answer with 8 straight of their own to capture a 8-3 lead on the Raiders. Wagner would time the game at 8 apiece and then the teams would go back and forth the remainder of the way only to see Wagner claim the lead on a last second shot to take a 14-13 lead into the second quarter. Wagner would never trail again. The Raiders would build a 6 and 8 point lead in the second quarter but the Cougars kept on fighting back and would trail the Raiders 25-22 at halftime. Wagner would clamp down hard in the second half and out score the Cougars 38-19 and claim the high anticipated match-up 63-41. Both teams would not shoot the best the first half as Wagner was 38% and Viborg-Hurley was 37%, but in the end Wagner would shoot 54% for the game and the Cougars only 33%. Wagner would convert on 20-37 shooting while the Cougars would be 14-42. Wagner again would dominate the glass with a 31-20 advantage. Wagner would commit 8 turnovers compared to 10 from Viborg-Hurley. Emma Yost would lead all scorers with another double-double 18 points, 11 boards, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Eve Zephier liked getting use to her future home next year as she will be playing at Mt. Marty. She was 4-5 from the field and 1-1 from the line for 12 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists. Shalayne Nagel filled the stat sheet once again with 10 points, 8 boards, 4 steals, and 2 assists. Ashlyn Koupal would net 9 points, 3 assists, and 2 boards. Lydia Yost would finish with 6 points, and 5 boards. Macy Koupal would tally 5 points, and 4 assists. Hayden Fischer would round out the scoring with 1 point. “Just another night for the Raiders! Another great team win defensively. They have two all-state players on their defending championship team with all their players back from a year ago. We handled our composure in a close game at half. We cranked up the D in the second and were very efficient. We only took 37 shots but yet still managed 63 points. We made 20 shots and 19 were all assisted. We were 9-17 from beyond the arc which was the college line. We had at least 3 of those missed go around the world so our shooting was fantastic. We need to continue to build up on this game and keep getting better game after game no matter what the competition brings.”