Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Maddie Stafford is fouled on the wrist by Tara Cannon as she goes up for a layup.
It didn't appear as though the roughly 400-mile journey from Omaha had any adverse effects on the Skutt Catholic SkyHawks on Thursday night.
While the Red Raiders were solid in the first and fourth quarters of their season and home opener, the SkyHawks pressed their size advantage in the middle frames to down Sidney in a non-district game 51-41 at the Cabela's Athletic Facility.
Both teams now travel to Scottsbluff for round two of the Western Conference Invitational. The Raiders move to the consolation bracket to play Alliance at Scottsbluff High School at 3:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the SkyHawks will face the Chadron Cardinals. Chadron played its way into the winners bracket with an 80-25 blowout of the Bulldogs Thursday.
On a night which included two fourth-quarter three's, Katelin Cole led the Raiders scoring attack with 11 points. Sarah Mahr, who did most of her damage from closer range, followed Cole with 9 points. Sarah's sister, Emily Mahr, made the most of her limited playing time to score 7 points including a fourth quarter three of her own. Cody Rowley dropped 6 points.
"It looks like we took a little too much time to warm up," said Rowley. "This is an unfamiliar team to us but I think we can play better against the other teams in the tournament. We know the rest of them all pretty well."
Though the Raiders trailed by 18 points, 44-26, after three quarters they began to find their touch in the final eight minutes. In the early moments of the fourth quarter Sarah Mahr showed just how different things were going to be. She sank both ends of a 1-and-1 on a night when Sidney had struggled from the free-throw line. Cole then kept the momentum going by firing off 8 consecutive points.
"We didn't seem really focused when it came to our shooting and free throws," said Cole. "In the fourth quarter we just seemed a lot more aggressive, and it showed."
Cole's hot streak began when she followed Mahr's free throws by sinking a pair of her own. She then nailed two threes. The first came from the right corner after she quickly turned around Maddie Stafford's inbound pass. She hit her next three from the other side.
Sidney's 10-point run to open the final quarter narrowed the gap to 44-36.
Skutt Catholic's Miranda Kaster, however, put the brakes to the Raiders' momentum surge when she went on a 4-0 run of her own with two layups. Brooke Denton upped the SkyHawks advantage back to 13 when she followed with a free throw.
The Raiders' Savanna Rosenbaum finally stopped the enemy run when she dropped a two free ones of her own. Emily Mahr scored the last bucket of the game, draining a three from the right side.
"It seemed like we would play with them close and then get ourselves in a hole," said Abbi Porter. "This is our first game and it looks like we have a lot of growing to do as a team."
Skutt's Denton opened and closed the first quarter with a three pointer. Denton's second three broke an 8-8 tie with eight seconds to go after Sarah Mahr tied it with a foul shot. While Rowley provided a home-team highlight early in the second quarter, the next 16 minutes would be the Raiders undoing.
Rowley scored the Raiders first bucket of the second quarter after making a steal and charging back the other way for a layup. Later in the frame the SkyHawks put Sidney back on their heels with a 9-point run. During that run the Raiders went 0-4 from the foul line.
Maddie Stafford ended both runs by sinking a pair of free throws.
Stafford was followed by an Emily Mahr bucket. Mahr took a long pass from sister Sarah and converted a running layup.
As a result, the Raiders went into the half trailing by just 8 at 29-21.
"Skutt's really tough with their size and three-point shooting," said Sidney Head Coach Tyler Shaw. "I feel good about where we are and how we played against a good team. The girls kept playing hard and that gave us a good fourth quarter."
But it was the third eight minute segment which really put the Raiders in a bind. Aside from battling Skutt's size on the boards, Sidney's sudden struggles from the foul line hurt in the third quarter.
The Raiders dropped only 3 of 9 free shots during the frame. The first of the converted charities punctuated a three-point play by Sarah Mahr. But the Raiders scored only five more points duirng the devastating third.
Girls Basketball
Omaha Skutt 51
Sidney 41
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