The Lady Pioneers are off to Divisionals! They took a different path at Districts after a loss to Fort Benton, but they fought hard to the end and won the 3rd place game in overtime against Turner. The Lady Pioneers first played Hays and won 47-31; then they lost to Fort Benton 28-40; then they moved on to loser-out action against Box Elder and won 71-44; then played Turner and won in overtime 58-55.
When asked about his team's efforts and performance, Coach Travis said, "While we didn't have great offense over the weekend, our defense kept our season going into the Divisional tournament this week. We held our opponents to 37, 40, 44 and 55, while forcing 91 turnovers. While our offense didn't put up the numbers we are used to, our team did a great job assisting on 63% of our made shots! Yeadon led the team in scoring with 79, followed by Sant and Baumann with 32 each. Yeadon also led the team in rebounding with 58, followed by Galbavy with 28 and Sant with 22. Baumann led the team in assists with 19, followed by Yeadon with 11 and Galbavy with 8. Galbavy led the team in steals with 16, followed by Sant and Baumann with 12. Galbavy led the team with 10 blocks, followed by Yeadon with 2."
Coach Travis stated, "Our first game is against Simms, the third seed out of the 10C, on Wednesday at 7:00 PM. We sure would appreciate as many Pioneer fans as possible to help cheer on these young ladies!"
The girl's game breakdowns are as follows:
The Lady Pioneers had a battle against Hays. The refs set the tone early by letting them play. It was a pretty physical game. The Lady Pioneers started strong with some great plays. Eva Yeadon had a great pass to Keira Galbavy, Jenny Sant had a nice jumper, and Lainey Terry had a great steal and pass to Jai Baumann, who then passed to Eva for a layup. The Lady Pioneers were up 16-7 after the 1st quarter.
The second quarter started with the Lady Pioneers having a 7-2 run on the Lady Thunderbirds. The Lady Thunderbirds then flipped the script on the Lady Pioneers and went on an 8-0 run. The score going into halftime was Lady Pioneers 29, Lady Thunderbirds 19.
The second half was a back-and-forth battle with both teams trading buckets, with the Lady Thunderbirds outscoring the Lady Pioneers by 1 point, scoring 12 points in the quarter. The Lady Pioneers were still up by 7 points in the last stanza.
The Lady Thunderbirds came out of the 4 quarter still giving it everything they got and came within 5 points, but the Lady Pioneers were just too much to handle with their great drives, passes, and defense. The Lady Pioneers won by 10 points with a score of 47-37.
Eva was a high scorer and high rebounder with 23 points and 20 rebounds. Keira Galbavy had 8 steals, and Jenny Sant had 6 steals. Jai Baumann led the team in assists with 6.
The Lady Pioneers then turned around and played the Lady Longhorns, a defensive game from the beginning from both teams. The Lady Pioneers had so many great opportunities and had great looks to the basket, but they needed something to be falling for them. The Lady Pioneers scored their first points on a fast break layup after 3 mins of game clock had run out. The Lady Pioneers went into the 2nd quarter down by 4 with a very low score of 3-7.
The Lady Pioneers did get a 3-pointer from Jai Baumann and a Keira Galbavy bucket, but the Lady Pioneers only scored 9 points in the 2nd quarter, with 4 of those points coming from free throws. They had great defense and held the Lady Longhorns to only 16 first-half points, but they only scored 12 points. The score at the half was 12-16.
The second half picked up for both teams, but it was a hard defensive game. The Lady Pioneers scored on a Jenny Sant jumper and out-of-bounds play, as well as a nice rebound and putback from Keira. The Lady Pioneers scored 8 points, while the Lady Longhorns scored 11, putting the Lady Pioneers down 20-27 going into the last quarter.
Eva scored a big AND1 in the first 10 seconds of the game. Then she scored again on a nice take, bringing the Lady Pioneers within 4 points with a score of 25-29, but unfortunately, the Lady Longhorns took over at that point and outscored the Lady Pioneers in the 4th quarter 13-8, with a final score of 28-40.
Eva was a high rebounder and high scorer again, with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Keira led the team in steals with 4, and Jai Baumann led the team in assists with 4.
After the loss against Fort Benton, the Lady Pioneers were forced into loser-out action against the Lady Bears. This game was foul-heavy, with lots of free-throw shots.
The Lady Pioneers had a great start, with many great plays from Keira, Jai, Alex Worrall, Eva, and Jenny. The Lady Pioneers were up 16-4 at one point, but the Lady Bears went on a 7-0 run and pulled within 5 points. The Lady Pioneers then had their turn and caused the Lady Bear to turn over the ball with their great defense and went on a 6-0 run themselves. The score at the end of the 1st was 22-11.
It took the Lady Bears 5 minutes to score in the 2nd quarter, and the Lady Pioneers scored 17 points. The Lady Pioneers went into halftime up 17 points with a score of 39-22.
The second half was all Lady Pioneers putting a massive run on the Lady Bears, outscoring them 33-22 and pulling ahead with a win with a final score of 71-44.
The Lady Pioneers then moved in the 3rd place game against the Lady Tornadoes, and what an exciting game it was! Back-and-forth action the whole game.
The game was intense, and the Lady Tornadoes had the lead well into the 2nd quarter. But the Lady Pioneers knew they wanted that 3rd place trophy to go to Divsionals and worked so hard to get there. They went into halftime up 2 points, with a score of 29-27.
The Lady Pioneers went up 8 points in the 3rd quarter, but the Lady Tornadoes also wanted to prove they had a right to be in that 3rd place and pulled back into the game in the fourth quarter, and what a battle it was. Both teams were trading baskets and great defensive stops, including the most important stop of the game by Alex Worrall. The Lady Tornadoes were up by 2 points when Alex stole the ball and passed to Eva for a game-tying basket with 35 seconds left, forcing the game to go into overtime.
In overtime, it was still a battle, with the Lady Tornadoes only being down 1 point with a minute left in the game, but the Lady Pioneers prevailed and ended up winning by 3 points with a final score of 58-55.
Great job at Districts, ladies, and GOOD LUCK at Divisionals!
