Lady Raiders are state bound

SIDNEY – For the seventh time in ten years, the Sidney Lady Raiders are headed to the state tournament in Lincoln. Sidney punched their ticket with a 45-27 win over a motivated Alliance team, in the B-3 District Final, Saturday at the Cabela’s Athletic Facility. The Lady Raiders (24-2) earned the number three seed in the Class B bracket and will face sixth seeded Beatrice (17-4) Thursday, March 2 at 6:45 MST at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Defense set the tone early in the game for both teams. Sidney’s first four possessions consisted of two turnovers and a pair of missed free throws, a theme that plagued the Lady Raiders most of the game. Alliance’s Ciara Hudson opened the scoring with a three pointer a little over two minutes into the contest, but Karsyn Leeling answered with her own triple for Sidney a minute later. After a made free throw by senior Reese Riddle, Alliance junior Haylie Winter banked in Alliances second three pointer to take a 6-4 lead. It would be the Bulldogs last lead of the afternoon. Sidney finished the period with a Kayla Westby driving layup to take an 11-9 lead into the second.

Alliance tied the game a minute into the second quarter when Alliance sophomore Macey Seebohm made a fast-break layup to even the score at 11-11. Although the game remained close into the fourth quarter, Alliance never pulled even again. Sidney ended the first half on Karsyn Leeling’s third triple of the game to take a 22-15 lead into intermission.

The Lady Raiders did not score for almost five minutes in the third period however their defense held the Bulldogs to just four points over that time. A Kayla Westby three pointer sparked a 13-2 Sidney run to take a 35-21 lead into the final stanza. A pair of Rheagan Stanley free throws gave Sidney their biggest lead at 18 points with thirty-four second left in the game.

Sidney’s defense was stingy as usual. The Lady Raiders had 15 steals and nine deflections during the game, leading to 28 Alliance turnovers which Sidney turned into 15 points on the day. However Sidney struggled at the foul line making only 11 of 25 free throws in the game. The lone bright spot was senior Rheagan Stanley who went 6 for 10 and finished with a game high 11 points.

SIDNEY – Karsyn Leeling 9, Rheagan Stanley 11, Payton Schrotberger 0, Chloe Ahrens 5, Reese Riddle 5, Kierra Schrader 1, Jordan DeNovellis 4, Carli Black 0, Kayla Westby 8, Zoey Christensen 0, Katie Ramsey 2
ALLIANCE - Addison Weber 0, Bailey Stark 4, Catherine Bryner 2, Jaelynne Clarke 11, Haylie Winter 3, Macey Seebohm 4, Ciara Hudson 3, Miah Peters-Marstellar 0, Regan Braun 0, Kayel Lambert 0, Bailey Shannon 0