Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Sometimes one big quarter in basketball makes all the difference in the world.
The Sidney High girls’ basketball team can point to the second quarter of its game against Alliance on Friday night as a case in point. The Lady Raiders poured in 21 points in the second period to gain the lead – and momentum – en route to a 44-34 win over the Bulldogs at the Cabela’s Athletic Facility.
After falling behind to Alliance 7-0 to open the game and trailing 10-6 after the first eight minutes, Sidney’s offense finally clicked.
Erin Bown drained three 3-pointers for 9 points in the period, while teammates Kelsey Knight (4 points), Maddi Porter (3 points), Annalise Lecher (3 points) and Savanna Rosenbaum (2 points) all contributed to stake the Lady Raiders to a 27-13 halftime lead that they never relinquished. Alliance managed just one basket and three points in the quarter.
“Sometimes we just don’t come out ready to play,” said Sidney junior Emily Mahr, who scored a team-high 10 points. “It’s really weird. But then we got things going in the second quarter and we accomplished what we wanted – a win.”
Sidney improved to 16-7, while Alliance stumbled to 3-17.
Sidney head coach Tyler Shaw saw some great things in that second quarter that he plans to build on going into next week’s District B-6 tournament. The Lady Raiders will be the No. 1 seed and will play Thursday at McCook Community College against the winner of Monday night’s Gering-Alliance game.
“That second quarter was one of the best we played all year long,” Shaw said. “Halftime was the worst thing that could have happened to us. We just had too many unforced errors early, but the girls battled back.”
Alliance outscored Sidney 12-5 in the third quarter to trim the Lady Raiders’ lead to 32-25. But Sidney opened the final period with a 7-0 run to settle the issue.
“We just need to play a little smarter, especially down the stretch,” Shaw added. “We missed a lot of free throws late, but I told them to stay aggressive and keep trying to get to the line. Our goal is to always make more free throws than the other team attempts.”
While the Lady Raiders were only 15 for 38 from the charity stripe, Alliance made just 11 trips to the line and were successful on just five tries.
Reader Comments(0)