The Langford Area girls basketball team earned a split in two contests played during the past week, stopping Jones County 45-38 in the Warner Classic on Saturday and falling to Faulkton 56-27 on Friday.
Coach Michael Alberts’ charges stood at 7-12 heading into their regular season finale with Aberdeen Christian last night Tuesday. The eighth-seeded Lady Lions will likely host ninth seed Leola-Frederick (4-14) in a Region 1B play-in game on Monday with #7 Waverly-South Shore (7-10) hosting #10 Aberdeen Christian (0-18) in the other play-in game.
Other tournament pairings on Tuesday based on power point ratings following Monday games match top-seeded Northwestern (12-5) against the Langford Area-Leola-Frederick winner, #2 Warner (14-6) vs. the Waverly-South Shore-Aberdeen Christian winner, #3 Waubay-Summit (11-8) takes on #6 Wilmot (10-10), and #4 Tiospa Zine (6-12) plays #5 Hitchcock-Tulare (9-10).
Semifinal games are set for Thursday and SoDak 16 contests to determine the eight state tournament qualifiers will be played on Thursday, March 6.
“Faulkton’s defense made it hard for us to get into a rhythm on the offensive end and they forced us to turn the ball over leading to easy points on their end,” said Alberts. “But even though we had a hard time getting things going against Faulkton, this game helped us getting ready for the next day against Jones County.
“Jones County did a lot of the same things Faulkton did, and we were able to play much better,” noted Alberts. “We did a lot of good things on the offensive end and were able to get stops on the defensive end. Jones County started making a comeback towards the end of the game, but our girls did a good job of picking their game up and finishing the game.”
Langford Area 45
Jones County 38
Langford Area broke a first period tie by outscoring Jones County 15-8 in the second stanza, went up 37-23 with a 15-8 third quarter run, and then weathered a Jones County rally.
Paytyn Marlow led the Lady Lions with 15 points and Alex Darling added 14.
LANGFORD AREA: Clarissa Guy 2 2-2 6, Paytyn Marlow 4 5-7 15, Lizzie Gustafson 1 0-2 2, Alex Darling 4 2-2 14, Eliana Darling 2 3-3 7. Totals 13 13-18 45.
JONES COUNTY: Mallory Venard 2 1-2 6, BreAna Aske 8 1-6 17, Denae Mann 1 0-0 2, Jacey Jensen 1 2-4 5, Maggie Dowling 1 0-0 2, Tenley Venard 2 0-0 6. Totals 15 4-14 38.
LA (7-12) 7 22 37 45
Jones County (9-8) 7 15 23 38
3-point goals – Marlow 2, A. Darling 4; M. Venard, Jensen, T. Venard 2. Fouled out – M. Venard, Sunny Valburg. Total Fouls – LA 16, JC 17.
Faulkton 56
Langford Area 27
Faulkton jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead and then outscored the Lady Lions 31-16 in the final two quarters.
Alex Darling scored nine points for LA and Paytyn Marlow added seven counters. Josie Jensen pulled down four rebounds and Lizzie Gustafson contributed four assists.
FAULKTON: Anika Mueller 8 3-4 19, Presleigh Martinmaas 2 0-0 5, Anna Aesoph 1 0-0 3, Carley Cotton 10 4-4 26, Brooklyn Mueller 1 1-4 3. Totals 22 8-12 56
LANGFORD AREA: Paytyn Marlow 2 2-4 7, Lizzie Gustafson 2 0-0 4, Alex Darling 4 0-3 9, Eliana Darling 1 1-2 4, Clarissa Guy 1 1-1 3. Totals 10 4-10 27
Faulkton (12-6) 10 25 50 56
LA (6-12) 2 11 22 27
3-point goals – Martinmaas, Aesoph, Cotton 2; Marlow, A. Darling, E. Darling. Total fouls – Faulkton 8, LA 11.
