Other than the greatest story ever told (the Christmas Story) last week’s second greatest story was the L-N girls’ basketball team trip to western Nebraska to play Hi-Line (Eustis) High School. The Class D-2 Lady Raiders took on another of the 18 or 19 teams in a higher class.
And . . . they came home with a win. A 49-41 victory.
The game was, without a doubt, the most interesting contest of the young season to date. Looking at the box score was the most puzzling view in the statistics. It looked something like this:
L-N 7 9 12 21 - 49
Hi-Line 15 13 8 5 - 41
There was a dramatic turnaround between halves of play by both teams. A brief rundown of the highlights of the game:
HALF No. 1: Both teams went scoreless for almost two minutes to start the game. Kara Menke started the scoring for the game with two of her 21 points for the game. The score was tied at 7-7 with 1.5 minutes left in the first quarter when Hi-Line went on an 8-0 scoring spree before the period ended.
Addison McCloskey opened the second period with the first of her four 3-pt. shots for the game. However, the Raiders hit a six minute dry spell while Hi-Line built a 16 point lead at one time. Kali Cassell broke the scoring drought and Menke added four points in the last minutes with the last two coming at the buzzer.
HALF No. 2: Fans had a feeling things were going to change right from the start. McCloskey replicated her second period performance by hitting a 3-pt. shot early on, but then doubled the pleasure by hitting another 3-pt. shot two minutes later. After those early six points, Menke made 4 of 4 free throws and the point difference was reduced to only six points: 26-32. The Raiders went scoreless for three minutes until Brynn Harrison scored right before the third period ended.
A defensive changed helped L-N limit scoring by Hi-Line which made only two field goals in the final half of play.
Hi-line scored two free throws very early in the fourth period but then went scoreless for about 6 1/2 minutes. Vali Koehler started the scoring for L-N with two pts. followed by Kara Menke blocking a Hi-Line shot, grabbing the ball and driving the floor to score with a lay-up. Right after that, McCloskey followed with a lay-up of her own. Her score tied the score at 38-38 with 4
1/2 minutes left in the game.
Hi-Line remained scoreless while Menke and Hanna Skinner scored pts. With about a minute left, a memorable play emerge with Kara Menke throwing an inbound pass from the Raider basket one-half court to Addison McCloskey, who found a streaking Vali Koehler closing in on the basket and she got the McCloskey pass and scored on a lay-up. The game ended with free throws that didn’t change the outcome.
Fewer Raider turnovers (especially in the final quarter of play) and a better shooting percentage were obvious and perhaps the reason for the victory. Menke’s 21 pts. and McCloskey’s 15 led six Raider players in scoring. Menke also had 11 rebounds for a ‘double-double.’
Statistics: (Scoring – Rebounds – Fouls) Addison McCloskey 15 – 2 - 4; Kali Cassell 2 – 4 - 2; Bayleigh Bohlen 0 – 2 - 2; Vali Koehler 4 – 1 - 2; Hanna Skinner 4 – 4 - 3; Kara Menke 21 – 11 - 3; Maddy Laughlin 0 – 1 - 2; Brynn Harrison 3 – 4 - 4; L/N total: 49 – 31 - 24; Hi-Line total: 41 – 40 - 17.
The girls will play Hampton in Nelson on Thursday, Jan. 2 and at McCool Junction on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
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