Red Raiders Fall to Mustangs 53-34

Sidney's Red Raider basketball team continued to struggle as the work to earn their elusive first win of the season. Sidney hosted the Fort Morgan, Colo., Mustangs, and had difficulty dealing with the speed and strength of the visiting squad. The contest started with both teams working fast, but Sidney had trouble hitting their shots when they got inside, while the Mustangs worked off the fast break and were more effective making the most of their scoring opportunities.

Senior leader Arik Doty turned his ankle during warm-ups, and the injury limited his effectiveness from the field. By the end of the first period, the Mustangs held a 15-to-6 advantage, and continued to give Sidney trouble in the second period, jamming up the inside lanes, causing turnovers, and preventing the Red Raiders from getting good looks from the field. The Sidney boys played hard from behind, never giving up on a play as exemplified by senior Alec Maddox running down a Mustang on a fast-break opportunity and swatting his layup attempt out of the air, igniting the Sidney faithful with a huge cheer for the effort.

But the Red Raiders couldn't handle the speed of the Mustangs, and continued to turn the ball over with bad passes and ball handling. Doty drained a big three pointer to narrow the score to 23-to-12, but Fort Morgan answered right back with a three pointer of their own to stop the Sidney momentum. Again, the Mustang's speed and harassing defense kept Sidney off-balance, and prevented them from converting on easy chances. The Red Raiders were only able to manage 15 points in the second half, and fell to the visitors by a final score of 53-to-34.

The Red Raiders travelled to Alliance on Saturday to take on the rival Bulldogs, but again struggled to score, getting shut out in the first period by the Alliance defense. The Bulldogs piled up 22 points in the second quarter against Sidney's four, opening up a 30-to-4 halftime lead, effectively knocking out the Red Raider's chances of a comeback. The Bulldogs went on to cruise to a 58-to-23 victory.

Sidney head coach Austin Lewis commented on the games, saying, "Fort Morgan was a tough loss for us as our leading scorer Arik Doty rolled his ankle in warm-ups, and it hurt his game. He was unable to play on the ankle versus Alliance. We really had trouble scoring the ball inside against Fort Morgan's size and strength."

"We have battled some adversity with injuries, and hopefully sometime in January we'll have everyone healthy and it will help our depth. Until then, we'll have a lot of chances to get a lot of players meaningful varsity minutes that will hopefully help the team improve," added Lewis.

The Red Raiders next travel to Mitchell on Thursday to take on the Tigers.