The Crawford and Sioux County girls will face each other for the fourth time this season in the D2-12 Sub-District Final Thursday.
Both the Rams and the Warriors came out on top in their semi-final games to advance. The 18-4 Crawford Rams have defeated the 15-9 Sioux County Warriors in the previous three matchups this year. The winner of Thursday’s game, which will tip off at 6 p.m. in Crawford, will move on to the District Final contest, where a win would send them to the state tournament.
Crawford won its semi-final game over Minatare 56-14 Tuesday. Minatare never scored more than five points in a period, and the Rams were able to race out to an early 20-2 lead behind six field goals, two threes and a pair of free throws. Natalie Barry scored 13 of the Rams’ 21 second quarter points, and Crawford pulled ahead 41-7 by half-time. After the break, the pace slowed but the Rams still outmatched Minatare 9-5 and 6-2 in the final quarters.
Every player on the Ram roster but one found their way on to the scoreboard. They were led by Barry with 15 and Kylah Vogel with 10. All of Minatare’s points were netted by two players – Alicia Gutierrez with nine, and Jazmin Calihua with five.
Big second and fourth quarters helped keep the Hay Springs Hawks at bay as the Sioux County Warriors got the 60-30 victory. The teams were nearly even at 8-7 in Sioux County’s favor after one quarter, but the Warriors surged ahead with a 20-point second quarter to take a 28-14 lead into the break. The Hawks closed to within eight as the third quarter began before Sioux County was able to add much to the board. With the score of 38-24 as the final frame started, the Warriors went on a 22-6 run to put the game away.
Sioux County was led by Britney Klein with 17 and Rachel Krein with 15, who picked up a double-double with 11 rebounds. Hay Springs was led by Sadie Hanks with 10.
Crawford 20 21 9 6 -56
Minatare 2 5 5 2 -14
Ram scoring: Kylah Vogel, 10; Kierra Brennan, 2; Paityn Homan, 2; Kamden Victory, 2; Natalie Barry, 15; Carly Lemmon, 7; Tiana Clark, 4; Skylar Summers, 6; Jasmine Dyer, 9
Indian scoring: Alicia Gutierrez, 9; Jazmin Calihua, 5
Sioux County 8 20 10 22 -60
Hay Springs 7 7 10 6 -60
Hawk scoring: Sadie Hanks, 10; Sam Toof, 9; Hally Johnson, 3; Alexa Tonjes, 2; Emily Nelson, 2; Molly Spicer, 4
Warrior stats: Megan Comstock, 6 pts, 3 reb, 1 stl, 2 blks; Kailey Klein, 6 pts, 2 reb, 5 stls; Hannah Krein, 4 pts, 6 reb, 2 stls, 1 asst; Rachel Krein, 15, 11 reb, 4 stls 1 block; Beth Krein, 6 pts, 4 reb, 2 stls; Britney Klein, 17 pts, 4 reb, 7 stls, 5 assts; Skylar Edmund, 6 pts, 4 reb, 2 stls, 4 assts; Kaylee Juhnke, 3 reb, 1 asst; Ashley Hunter, 1 stl