The Lady Raiders hosted the 7-1 Parkston Trojans last Thursday night in girls basketball action.

Wagner stormed out of the gate taking a 21-11 lead after the first. The cold air would cool off the Raiders in the second as Parkston out scored them 11-8 as the Raiders would take a 29-22 lead into half time. Parkston continued to chip away and cut the lead to 4 after the third quarter as Wagner held a 45-41 advantage. Parkston tied the game at 47 apiece, but Ashlyn Koupal and Braxton Nedved knocked down back to back threes for the Raiders who went on an 11-0 run and took a 58-47 lead into the final 2 minutes. Parkston played some pesky defense and capitalized on a few of the Raiders mistakes and cut the lead to 3 with 4.3 seconds left. Lydia Yost knocked down a free throw to end any hopes of overtime for the Trojans.

Wagner found its groove shooting as they hit 24- 44 from the field for 55% while Parkston struggled from the field converting on only 22-59 shots for 37%. Wagner won the battle of the boards 30-24. The Raiders were 8-10 from the line while Parkston was 9-14. Wagner commited 17 turnovers compared to 11 from Parkston.

Macy Koupal lead all scorers with 25 points, grabbed 7 boards, and dished out a team high 6 assists. Ashlyn Koupal recorded another double-double with 20 points, 14 boards, 4 blocks and 3 assists. Lydia Yost finished with 8 points, 3 assists, and 2 boards. Braxton Nedved ended with 5 points, 4 boards, and dished out 5 assists. Hayden Fischer rounded out the scoring with 4 points, and 3 boards.

“This was a game of runs. We came out ready and executed, took care of the basketball and did a great job of attacking the rim. We got a little complacent in the 2nd and 3rd quarter again and just were getting out hustled. We had a few mental break downs on defense and let their two shooters catch rhythm. We responded with a great push in the 4th as soon as they tied the game we went on a 11-0 run. We had lots of learning moments in the final two minutes of the game, but held it together to finish with the win.”

JV Results

The JV team was defeated 7-29. Hannah Holzbauer had 5 points and Ravyn Medricky 2. Defensively the Raiders did a great job as the Parkston JV put up 57 points against Vermillion last week. Their pressure caused some havoc for the Raiders offense and didn’t get us very many good looks at the basket. Something that can improve overtime.

C Team Results

The C team came up short again with a 21-23 loss. Hannah Holzbauer would lead all scorers with 8 points. Braelyn Scott would finish with 6. Olivia Podzimek would finish with 5 points and Jazlyn Lhotak 2. This group worked really hard again and put themselves great positions to score. We had some opportunities in transition but just came up a bit short.