UNDEFEATED TEAMS CLASH AT THE HANSON CLASSIC

The Lady Raiders participated in the Girls Hanson Classic Saturday January, 15th in the battle of a game where it was the only one where both teams were undefeated. Class A teams that were also undefeated like ACDC, Florence Henry, and #1 Flandreau would all fall on Saturday, which meant that Wagner or West Central would be the only remaining team in class A. The pace would start out fast as both teams wanted to get up and down the court. Wagner couldn’t seem to buy a bucket early and find themselves trailing 2-7. Wagner would settle down and eventually take a 16-14 after the first. The Trojans would soon find themselves reeling in the second as the Raiders would continue to pound the ball inside and score at will. Wagner would sprinkle in some daggers from the perimeter and then just lock down on the defensive end on their scorers to take a commanding lead into half 39-21. To open the third Wagner would increase their lead to 22 but then to find West Central go on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 11. Wagner would then regroup after a timeout, move the basketball around as Macy Koupal would hit a 3 as the shot clock expired. After a defensive stop, Wagner again would get great inside outside ball movement as Lydia Yost would nail another 3 and just like that the lead was back to 17. The third would end with Wagner still holding it’s 18-point lead 54-36. Wagner wouldn’t quit and continue to poor it on outscoring the Trojans 21-11 in the 4th winning the game 75-47. Wagner would shoot a blistering 62% for the game 29-47 while holding the previous red-hot Trojans to just 27% 17-63. Wagner would destroy West Central on the glass out rebounding them 40-20. Emma Yost would lead all scorers with 25 points, team high 8 assists, and grab 5 boards. Shalayne Nagel would also have a monster of a game with 22 points, 11 boards, 4 assist, 2 steals, and 4 blocks. Macy Koupal would be the third Raider in double figures with 11 points, 5 boards, and 2 assists. Eve Zephier would finish with 6 points, 7 assists, and 3 boards. Lydia Yost would also add 6 points off the bench while grabbing 2 boards and dishing out 2 assists. Ashlyn Koupal would net 4 points off the bench, but grab a team high 12 boards, dish out 4 assists, and come away with 2 blocks. Sydney Cournoyer would round out the scoring with 1 point. “Execution, perseverance, and then just determination empowered us to win this game. We controlled the glass. We stopped #2’s dribble penetration and held her to 8 points. We got a high hand on #10 and held her to 5. Then we kept #3 in check to 13 points holding her to 5-16 shooting from the floor. Defensively flawless execution on our girl’s part. We knew the scout and executed it to a tee. For the most part, most of our girls haven’t played on this stage or atmosphere that showed a bit of a hostile crowd, a lot of open space behind the baskets, and just a very large crowd. The girls persevered, and every time West Central made a run to close the gap would counter and make a run larger than the Trojans. When in a boxing match, once a fighter gets dinged, their opponent just keeps throwing hay makers to end the fight. That’s what our girls were determined to do. We just kept taking it to them. West Central is a very, very good basketball team. On the night prior to our game, West Central defeated #2 St. Thomas More by 22 points as they were up by as much as 35 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Offensively we got great basketball movement for most of the game. Early in the third we were settling for 3’s but once we kept moving the basketball inside and out, we converted from the perimeter and then just dominated them inside. Congratulations to Shalayne as she was awarded Warrior of the Game by the South Dakota National Guard. Congratulations to both Emma and Shalayne for being selected Q107 co-players of the game. A huge congratulations to Jessica Kocer as she was a recipient of one of the Hanson Classic Scholarship recipients. Finally, a huge thank you to all the parents and students that traveled to show their support. Wagner girls basketball also wants to thank Dennis and Mary Merkwan for sponsoring a team supper for the girls last Friday night!”