Two solid performances were sullied by two incomplete efforts this past weekend at a 16 team basketball tournament in Moose Jaw, as the YRHS Lady Raiders were just .500 with a 2-2 record over the two-day event.
The orange-clad Lady Raiders opened up the tournament with a dominant performance over Melfort, crushing the 4A school 65-38 for their third consecutive win head-to-head, increasing the margin of victory each and every time. 鈥淭his was our third time beating Melfort and we鈥檝e shown progress each time we鈥檝e played them,鈥� said Lady Raider head coach Jessica Kyle. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen them at the beginning of the season, a little bit further in to the season and now here in the middle-to-end of the season and the results show how far we鈥檝e progressed because we beat them by eight the first time, 20 the second time and now by 27 this time so I think it shows how much our girls are improving.鈥�
Grade 10 guard Marlee Potzus led the way offensively for the Lady Raiders with 10 points, while Amber Tilcox scored eight points and hauled down eight rebounds in the victory.
That improvement continued to show for much of the Lady Raiders鈥� second game of the tournament, as they took an early lead against tournament host Moose Jaw 鈥� Central and led for much of the way in a game that, should they have won, would have seen them finish no lower than fourth.
Unfortunately a weak fourth quarter effort combined with a spirited comeback by Central resulted in the Lady Raiders surrendering the lead late in the game to ultimately lose 45-40. 鈥淚t鈥檚 disappointing because we can beat them,鈥� coach Kyle told Yorkton This Week, continuing, 鈥淲e were winning for 37 of the 40 minutes of the game but had a terrible fourth quarter and they climbed back to beat us 45-40.
鈥淭he girls had a great three quarters but the fourth quarter was just not our strongest and it cost us.鈥�
Olivia Tomcala had 10 points and eight rebounds in the five point loss to Central, which dropped the Lady Raiders to the 鈥楤鈥� side bracket and a date with Estevan 鈥� a team that has historically had their way with the Regional.
Estevan took the lead early in the contest; however the Lady Raiders kept pace with the Elecs throughout the first three quarters of the game to trail by just eight heading into the final frame, where another disastrous effort resulted in the Lady Raiders losing their second straight game, this time 65-39. 鈥淭hat was a big game for us because they鈥檙e a 5A team and it would have playoff seeding implications,鈥� said coach Kyle, adding that she felt her girls would have been able to possibly battle back and win if they continued to play the way they had been. 鈥淭he game was very much still within our grasp at that point and all we had to do was just take it possession by possession and be smart and instead we didn鈥檛 and ended up losing by 20 some points because of another terrible fourth quarter.鈥�
The loss dropped the YRHS to the seventh/eighth place game against Meadow Lake where a 12 point effort by Tomcala and a nine point performance by Kaitlin Mak led them to a positive finish with a 54-34 win.
The Lady Raiders will now turn their attention to their final exams, before joined the YRHS senior boys for the week-long Coal Bowl in Cape Breton Nova Scotia, from February 1 to 6.
