Basketball season ends with victories

Hoping for the basket — Dru Gyltan goes in for a basket against the Lady Wildcats defender Jasmine Cisneros. The Lady Rangers came away with the victory in District 15A playoff game. The Rangers won with a score of 42 to 34. [Submitted Photo/Scott Wooldridge]

By Shawn Woodward

The girls finished their regular season on Friday defeating Wall 58-55 at Wall. Kendra McLaughlin led the way with 16 points followed by Dru Gylten’s 15 and Kala McDonald’s 12. But the team’s defense was outstanding in the final quarter. Hill City was down by seven points with 2:30 to go in the game and the girls fought their way back for the win. Key free-throws by Sayge Wooldridge and a big basket by Breanna Lende-Hanson inside went along with a timely three pointers by Gylten. McDonald led the comeback.
On Monday night, the girls hosted Custer for the first district girls basketball game in eight years. The crowd was great as the Rangers were able to defeat the Wildcats for the third time this season, 42–34. McLaughlin and Gylten led the way with 10 pts each and McDonald had 9 pts. Custer’s half-court defense gave us problems all night, as they held us eight points under our season average. But the team defense again proved to be the key.
After falling behind 4–0 to start the game, the girls were able to hold Custer with only a free-throw the rest of the first quarter. As the game wore on, the Ranger constant pressure defense didn’t allow the Wildcats to ever get into an offensive rhythm, either. McLaughlin had 11 rebounds to lead the team and Kala contributed seven assists to go with her six steals. But the team defense on Kenzie Swanson was again the key to the win. Codee Sagdalen, Lende-Hanson, Sayge Wooldridge, McLaughlin and Allie Henderson were just some of the girls that really did a nice job defensively on the taller Wildcat inside. On the perimeter, Tia Grabow along with Gylten and McDonald really caused problems for the Wildcat guards.
The girls now will travel to Rapid City Central for the district championship on Thursday at 6 p.m. Their opponent will be the Red Cloud Crusaders, who they split with this year.