Raiders too strong for Lexington

With their second strong fourth-quarter foul shooting exhibition in as many days, the Raiders gave Lexington no chance for a big comeback, handing the visitors a 51-35 clubbing in a non-district contest Saturday afternoon.

After shooting 15-18 from the foul line in the fourth quarter the night before in Ogallala, the Raiders went 13-16 at the Cabela's Athletic Facility less than 24 hours later. Despite two different venues with dramatically different lighting conditions, the Raiders again proved rock solid from the foul line at crunch time.

Viewed from the simple mathematical perspective, Sidney hit at better than 82-percent from the line in the final period of their last two games.

The 2-0 weekend advanced the Raiders' record to 8-5 on the year, while Lexington slipped to 3-11.

The Raiders' district mark holds at 4-1.

Unlike the closely fought battle with the Indians Friday night, Sidney was in control of this contest almost from the outset. Though the Raiders leading scorer, Sarah Mahr, watched the opening moments of the contest from the sidelines, she quickly got involved in the offense upon her arrival on the court.

When the night was over she would lead all scorers with 24 points - her second largest offensive output of the season.

"It's kind of defferent sitting on the bench to start the game," said Mahr. "From the bench you kind of see what you have to do and I went in ready to do it."

Mahr erased the Raiders only deficit of the game by scoring the Raiders opening bucket for a 2-2 tie. A couple of minutes later her three pointer gave Sidney a lead they would never relinquish.

Cody Rowley and Katelin Cole added to Mahr's 6-point quarter for a 9-4 Raiders lead after one.

Just 32 seconds into the second stanza Mahr again stretched the nylon. Her three pointer, and a layup by Rowley, advanced the lead to 10 points before Lexington began to fight back.

Two buckets by Lexington's Hannah Ostrom helped power a 6-0 answer to the Raiders to bring the visitors back to within four at 14-10.

Sidney's counterpunch, however, included threes from Cole and Mahr, backed by a duece from Abbi Porter, to give the home team a 23-10 halftime lead.

"I think we're staring to do better on the little things," said Cole. "And we want to keep working and keep improving right through March."

Lexington picked up their offensive game in the second half and fought Sidney to an 11-11 third quarter. But the Raiders could afford the give-and-take and the Minutemen could not.

Though the Raiders did not visit the free stripe as often in the third quarter as they would in the fourth, they nevertheless converted on an impressive 7 of 8 tries.

Rowley did not miss in 4 attempts in the frame while Mahr (2) and Maddie Stafford (1) contributed free throws as well.

Cole and Mahr added field goals to the Sidney third-quarter attack.

"We work on free throws every day in practice and some of us who haven't done as well have worked more on them," said Rowley who's been scoring with more regularity of late.

She had a ready explanation for this.

"Coach (Tyler Shaw) had a talk with me and said I needed to be more aggressive and attack the basket more."

The fourth quarter scoring for the Raiders was little different from the night before. Sidney scored the first 7 points of the period - all from the money line.

Mahr dropped in 5 and Rowley another 2.

Like the previous night's fourth quarter, there were five Raiders who hit at least one foul shot in the final eight minutes of play. On this night the group numbered Mahr, Rowley, Maddie Stafford, Cole and Ashley Stafford.

Unlike the game at Ogallala, Sidney added some field work to their free-throw shooting. Cole and Mahr each provided 2 points from the floor in the final period.

In addition to Mahr's 24, Rowley and Cole added 10 points each and Maddie Stafford 4.

The Raiders won't hit the hardwood again until they host a pair of games this weekend.

It begins as Bridgeport from Class C2 invades the Cabela's Athletic Facility on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The Bulldogs will be followed by Sidney's district rival Scottsbluff, scheduled to visit on Saturday.

Girls Basketball

Sidney 51

Lexington 35

Saturday

LEX'TON 4 6 13 12 - 35

SIDNEY 9 14 11 17 - 51

Raiders Scoring

Sarah Mahr 24

Katelin Cole 10

Cody Rowley 10

Maddie Stafford 4

Abbi Porter 2

Ashley Stafford 1