The Wagner Lady Raiders rose to the occasion on a big stage last Saturday, January 17, knocking off No. 3-ranked Hamlin 54-48 at the 43rd Annual Girls Hanson Classic inside the iconic Corn Palace in Mitchell.

Hamlin entered the contest undefeated at 9-0, while Wagner was coming off a statement win Thursday over No. 2-ranked Parkston. The Chargers wasted no time early, opening the game with a flurry of offense to take a 22-8 lead after the first quarter.

Wagner responded in the second quarter by tightening up defensively and steadily chipping away at the deficit. The Raiders cut the lead to two before a Hamlin buzzer-beater sent Wagner into halftime trailing 28-23.

Both teams battled through a defensive third quarter, with Wagner continuing its comeback and trimming the margin to just one, 34-33, heading into the final period.

The fourth quarter belonged to the Lady Raiders. Showing discipline, endurance, and composure, Wagner took the lead early in the quarter and pushed the advantage to as many as seven points late. Hamlin attempted to claw back with multiple deep three-pointers, but Wagner sealed the win at the free-throw line, converting 9-of-10 attempts in the final quarter.

Wagner limited Hamlin to just 26 points over the final three quarters after surrendering 22 in the opening frame. The Raiders shot 49 percent from the field (18-of-37), while Hamlin cooled off to 30 percent (18-of-53). Wagner also controlled the boards, outrebounding the Chargers 28-19.

Ashlyn Koupal led all scorers with a dominant performance, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, two blocks, and a steal. Koupal, one of 10 scholarship recipients at the Classic, also surpassed 1,000 career rebounds, now sitting at 1,009—good for 13th all-time in South Dakota history.

Peytyn Wiechmann provided a spark off the bench with 11 points, four rebounds, and a steal. Koupal and Wiechmann were named Q107.3 Players of the Game. Additional scoring came from Hayden Knudsen with six points, Braxon Nedved with five points, Hannah Holzbauer with three, and Mateya Bruguier with two.

A NOTE FROM THE COACH...

“What a last three days of adrenaline! Just last Tuesday after that loss to EPJ it felt like the sky was falling. These girls are resilient! They focused up and locked down defensively the past two games taking out two excellent teams. It took us a quarter to actually execute what we need to do defensively but when we figured it out, WOW! Offensively we got 14 points from our bench, we took very good care of the basketball in half court, we rebounded very well the final three quarters and when we needed shots we had 5 girls hit shots in the 4th quarter alone and none were bigger than every shot taken. We wore them out in the 4th as we ran the floor and got transition which shows we are in game shape. Great team effort on both sides of the ball tonight. Just need to keep taking care of business one game at a time.”