The Langford Area girls basketball team advanced to Region 1B quarterfinal play but fell to Warner 58-26 on Saturday to end its season.
Coach Michael Alberts’ club had defeated Waverly-South Shore 50-21 in the regional play-in game between the eight and nine seeds on Friday to earn its quarterfinal berth against number one seed Warner.
Warner (16-6) downed Hitchcock-Tulare 76-44 on Monday to earn a spot in the SoDak 16 against fifth-seeded Wall (17-5) on Thursday. Leola-Frederick was the other Region 1B semifinal winner, stopping Northwestern 46-33. The Titans (16-6) are the 16th seed in the SoDak 16 and will meet number one Wolsey-Wessington (20-2) on Thursday.
“I thought we took really good care of the ball against Waverly-South Shore and did a good job of penetrating and getting to the basket,” said Alberts. “On the defensive end, we created a lot of turnovers which led to easy baskets for us. Warner has a very good defensive team and made it difficult for us to get settled in on the offensive end. But even with their good defense, we were able to make some really good plays on the offensive end.”
Alberts was pleased with the improvement he saw from his club this season.
“I thought we really improved on having most of our girls look to score and create shots for themselves or for others. I also thought we played pretty good defense. We were able to play different defenses and still play them at a good level.
“We just want to keep working on our consistency in everything we do. I also thought our team got some really good and valuable experience this year. We played in a lot of different types of games which put us in a lot of different situations to learn from and that experience should help us in the future.”
Langford Area loses just two players to graduation – Montana Marlow and Kylie Schock.
Warner 58 Langford Area 26
In quarterfinal play Warner led just 12-3 after one period but then exploded for 20 second period points to grab a 32-11 advantage at intermission. The Lady Lions played the Monarchs on even terms in the third quarter, trailing 42-21 after three quarters and Warner padded that margin over the final eight minutes.
Megan Gustafson led LA with eight points.
LANGFORD AREA: Tawnee Nelson 2 0-1 4, Kylie Schock 1 0-0 2, Megan Gustafson 3 2-2 8, Clarissa Guy 1 2-4 4, Paytyn Marlow 0 2-5 2, Alex Darling 1 2-2 4, Lizzie Gustafson 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 8-14 26.
WARNER: Kiah Koch 2 0-1 6, Ava Nilsson 6 2-5 14, Sophia Hoeft 1 11 3, Kendyl Anderson 0 1-2 1, Kamryn Anderson 2 3-8 7, Lauren Marcuson 0 2-2 2, Kyra Marcuson 1 1-2 4, Kyleigh Schopp 4 1-2 9, Stacia Carda 2 2-2 6, Makenna Leidholt 1 0-0 2, Brooke Haaland 1 0-0 2, Anna Schwab 0 0-1 0, Cassidy Fipps 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 13-26 58.
LA (4-16) 3 11 21 26 Warner (15-6) 12 32 42 58
3-point goals - Koch 2, K. Marcuson. Total fouls – LA 19, Warner 16.
Langford Area 50 Waverly-South Shore 21
Langford Area took charge early, outscoring Waverly-South Shore 29-3 in the first 14 minutes of the contest.
The Coyotes did go on a 12-0 run at the end of the second period and half of the third stanza to cut the margin to 29-15, but the Lady Lions responded with a 15-4 run of its own to put the game away.
WAVERLY-SS: Jolene Krantz 1 0-0 2, Sidney Stricherz 1 0-3 2, Carlee Mushitz 2 4-6 9, Emily Heuer 0 2-4 2, Annie Stricherz 3 0-0 6. Totals 7 6-13 21.
LANGFORD AREA: Tawnee Nelson 0 0-2 0, Montana Marlow 1 00 2, Megan Gustafson 8 1-6 17, Autumn Wegleitner 1 0-0 2, Paytyn Marlow 3 3-4 10, Alex Darling 6 2-4 14. Totals 21 716 50.
W-SS (0-21) 3 9 17 21 LA (4-15) 19 29 36 50
3-point goals - Mushitz; P. Marlow. Fouled out - A. Stricherz. Total fouls WSS 15, LA 15.
