Sidney Girls Win Holiday Shootout

Sidney's Lady Raiders closed 2017 with the Cabela's Holiday Tournament title under their belt, holding off a familiar foe to capture the crown. Sidney held off Gering in the championship game, using a strong fourth quarter run to take the girls' crown, 51-34.

Sidney's first opponent in the tournament was Buffalo, Wyo.

The Thursday afternoon matchup started as a defensive struggle for both teams, with no scoring until 5:13 of the first quarter. By the end of the first, the Lady Raiders had figured out Buffalo's defense and had built up an 11-6 lead.

The tough defense continued into the second period, with Buffalo already in foul trouble, with the defensive pressure on both sides causing each offense to miss easy scoring opportunities.

Each team committed turnovers repeatedly to start the half, with Sidney taking bad shots when they had the opportunity, and Buffalo repeatedly missing easy shots to keep the game out of reach. The remainder of the game continued in this fashion, with Buffalo missing chances to close, and Sidney slowly pulling away. The game ended in a final of 45-38, in Sidney's favor. Janay Brauer led the Lady Raiders with 18 points in the victory.

Sidney's Lady Raiders continued their winning ways Friday against the visiting Beatrice Lady Orange, winning their semi-final contest 48-35. Sidney played solid defensive basketball and were helped by the shooting efforts of Katelyn Sylvester and Meaghan Ross to secure the victory and advance in the tournament.

Beatrice changed up and applied a full court press defensively, and the Sidney girls had trouble making their adjustments. After a few series filled with poor shots and turnovers, the Beatrice team had started to close the gap. However, Beatrice's strategy of making the Lady Raiders shoot from the outside w as not effective, as the Sidney girls settled in and found their outside shooting game again, nailing three-pointers to take a 26-12 lead going into the half.

The fourth period started with a 36-24 Sidney lead, and both teams were plagued by sloppy ball handling and missed shot attempts. The Lady Orange had a remarkably loud cheering section travel to the tournament to root them on, but every turn in momentum was stopped cold by the Lady Raider's outside shooting prowess. Throughout the fourth, Beatrice's Michaela Jones took great shots but kept missing, unable to close the lead that Sidney had built. With 3:22 left in the game, Beatrice's Addie Barnard fouled out and the Lady Raiders cruised the rest of the way to a 13 point victory, and advanced to the finals of the tournament.

Meaghan Ross led the Lady Raiders with 14 points, and Katelyn Sylvester had 12, while MJ Johnstone and Janay Brauer each tallied 10 points in the winning effort.

Sidney advanced to the finals on Saturday to take on the Gering Lady Bulldogs.

The Lady Raiders led by as many as eight points in the first three quarters, but the Lady Bulldogs kept up the pressure to come back and tie the score a handful of times. Leading by two points, 30-28, at the end of the third quarter, Sidney erupted in the fourth period to seal the win. Back-to-back three pointers by Janay Brauer and Katelyn Sylvester, followed by a Taylor Dormann field goal gave Sidney a 10 point lead with five minutes remaining.

Sidney hit the floor with renewed vigor in the final period. Clean, crisp passes, coupled with higher energy on defense, slammed the door on any hopes Gering might have had.

"We wanted to refocus in the fourth quarter and try to play hard and smart," said Sidney Coach Tyler Shaw.

The tournament and Sidney's success capped a tough time for basketball teams, coming out of the holiday break where they haven't been in the gym with any organized practice for five days, then jumping straight into three days of tournament play.

"I thought we did a good job coming out of the break," Shaw said. "We played three really good teams and I'm just happy we came out and played with focus."