Sidney Girls Win Streak at 7

Sidney's Lady Raider basketball team is cruising through the early 2019 part of their schedule, notching two more wins to raise their record to 13-and-2 despite illness in their starting lineup and slow starts.

The Sidney defense continues their outstanding play, earning wins for the team during games where the offense is slow to start scoring.

Friday was Senior Night at Sidney High School, and the visiting Ogallala Lady Indians were able to contain a Lady Raiders team, with senior starters Janay Brauer and Meaghan Ross slowed by illness, to just a few scores in the early going.

The Lady Raiders were able to go on a run to end the first period 13-to-6 while battling the tough Ogallala defense. Both teams offenses struggled to score through most of the first half, going into the break with Sidney up 19-to-13.

Sidney head coach Tyler Shaw said, "They (Ogallala) came in and played a tough defensive game.  It was very physical and we didn't hit many shots."

It was the Sidney defense that carried the day in a low scoring contest, with missed shots and turnovers dominating the third quarter. Sidney's Brauer and Ross earned tough points to edge up the score, but Ogallala was able to pull within two, 22-to-20, in the closing moments of the third quarter. But Nicole Birner drew a charging call on an Ogallala 2-on-1 fast break, and sophomore Karly Sylvester quickly converted a few opportunities to build the Sidney lead to five, 25-to-20, at the end of three.

Sidney continued in the fourth grinding out points, while their defense stymied the Lady Indians offensive scheme and put the game out of reach with a final score of 35-to-22.

The Sidney defense had a whopping 21 steals on the night, and only allowed seven second half points, with just two in the fourth quarter.

Saturday had the Lady Raiders travel to Lexington to square off against the Lady Minutemen, and again started slowly with a six point first quarter. The cold shooting continued in the second period until senior Meaghan Ross started to hit three-point shots, which sparked the offense leading to a 23-to-19 Sidney lead at the half.

Again the defense was the factor that enabled the Lady Raiders to hold off Lexington, holding the Lady Minutemen to just sixteen points in the second half, while scoring enough points to pull out the win with a 46-to-35 final score.

Shaw said, "Our shooting was cold in the first half but Meaghan Ross hit some three pointers to finally get us going.  A really good job defensively in the second half allowed us to escape with a win."

Sidney next travels to Yuma, Colo., on Saturday to take on the Lady Indians.