Girls win two games in two weeks

By Shawn Woodward

The Rangers girls’ basketball team was able to defeat Red Cloud in Red Cloud 68–53. The Rangers came out strong again building a 20–11 lead at the end of the first quarter. The girls stretched the lead to 39–25 at half as Dru Gylten made a big three- pointer to stretch the lead. The Rangers were able to push the lead to as much as 26 points in the second half as everyone saw varsity minutes and the girls coasted to a solid win.
Leading the way was Gylten with a game high 28 points. Gylten now has the second-highest single game scoring mark in Ranger history, only behind Hillary Johnson’s 32 points in the 96-97 season. Kendra McLaughlin tallied 16 points and grabbed 15 rebounds leading the Rangers. McLaughlin pushed her career total to 525 points and moved up to 14th place on the all-time Ranger board.
Kala McDonald had a great game finishing with 12 assists and four steals. Allie Henderson also contributed nine rebounds, four assists, and six points. Again, as has been the team’s strength all season, the difference was a total team effort to get the win, as eight different players scored for the Rangers. The varsity record now stands at 11 – 6.
The junior varsity girls also competed against Red Cloud losing 45-36. The girls played hard, but just couldn’t quite overtake the Lady Crusaders. Brianna Clemetson led the way with 11 points, followed by Mikahla Ferguson’s nine points. The JV record now stands at 7–9.
The girls were able to defeat Douglas at home 53-45. The Rangers built a 10 point lead at half 30–20 and came out in the third quarter and stretched it to 24 points with a 47–23 lead going into the final quarter. Leading the way was McLaughlin’s 21 points, followed by McDonald’s 11 points. Codee Sagdalen led the way with 11 rebounds.
The girls traveled to Lead to play the Lady ’Diggers and came out on the short end of a 62–56 OT loss. The Rangers found themselves trailing by as much as 16 points. midway through the third quarter, but were able to fight back to get the game into overtime.
In the extra four minutes, they were out-scored 11–5. Leading the way was McLaughlin with 27 points, followed by McDonald’s 13 points. and Gylten’s 10 points. McLaughlin had eight rebounds leading the team.
The junior varsity girls also competed against Douglas losing 31-29 in overtime. The girls played hard, but just couldn’t quite get the victory. Jenni Qualm led the team with 11 points. The girls also lost to Lead-Deadwood’s junior varsity 48 – 30 with Qualm again leading the way with 13 points. The junior varsity record now stands at –11.
The girls will finish up the regular season as we travel to Wall on Friday Feb. 17, with the junior varsity game starting at 6 p.m. and varsity 7:30 p.m..
The varsity record now stands at 1 –7 and the girls have clinched the number one seed in the district. That entitles them to host the first district game in Hill City on Monday, Feb. 20, at 6:00 pm. The seeding for the rest of the district is still to be determined.
Come out and support the Lady Ranger basketball team on Monday night as they go for their first district win in eight years.