The Lady Raiders came off their first-round bye in Region 5 girls basketball action last Thursday to take on the McCook Central Montrose Fighting Cougars. The Cougars would take an early 3-0 lead and then the Raiders would go on a 15-0 run and take a commanding first quarter lead of 25-8. Both teams then would trade blows by only each scoring 8 points apiece in the second to bring the score to 33-16 in favor of the Raiders. The lead would get stretched to as much as 25 late in the 4th and the Raiders would come away with a 55-38 victory. The raiders would shoot 22-47 for 47% while the Cougars would go ice cold only shooting 14-55 for 26%. Wagner would dominate the glass with a 37-20 margin. The Raiders would dish out 17 assists compared to the cougars 6 but would turn the ball over 18 times compared to 13 from McCook Central. Lydia Yost would put up a great showing for her last home game of her career as a Raider, scoring 21 points, grabbing 6 boards, and dishing out 2 assists. Ashlyn Koupal would have a monster game with Wagner’s first ever quadruple-double. She would score 19, grab a game high 19 boards, swat 11 shots, and dish out a game high 10 assists, while also coming away with 3 steals. Mateya Bruguier would add 5 points and 4 boards off the bench with great minutes defensively. Hayden Knudsen would finish with 4 points. Braxton Nedved chipped in 3 points, grabbed 4 boards and dished out 3 assists. Ravyn Medricky rounded out the scoring with 3 points. “What a great game defensively by our kids. We were up in peoples faces did a great job of adjusting the second half to their ball screens from their bigs and we protected the paint like we wanted to not just letting them in there to shoot lay-ups. They did hit some open shots but in their previous games they hit a lot more and were given a lot more opportunities to shoot open shots. We did a great job of making them take lots of time off the shot clock and take rushed shots. Our transition was excellent in the first quarter. We forced the issue and got lots of great looks. We also got a few of those in the third again. I though we also got great production from all our kids that played tonight. Whether they did it on the defensive end, the offensive end or both. We were locked in and ready for whatever they threw at us on both ends. Now we get some rest this weekend and prepare for the next big game! Great Job ladies!!!”