By Tim Huether The Bennett County Lady Warriors gifted their parents with cookies, balloons, and a basketball win - their ninth of the season - Saturday at home on Parent’s Night against New Underwood.
The girls have now won six of their last seven games with just two games to go before heading to the playoffs. They travel to Kadoka Feb. 15, and Red Cloud Feb. 16.
Against New Underwood, Bennett County took no time in establishing control, leaping to a 9-0 lead, then 10-3 after one quarter. They extended the lead to 17-3 at the half, holding the Lady Tigers scoreless in the second quarter.
New Underwood started to find the bottom of the net in the third quarter and threatened to make it a game by scoring the final nine points of the frame and narrowing the gap to seven at 23-16.
The Lady Warriors found their second wind in the fourth quarter going on a 10-2 run to take control of the game at 33-18, led by six points from Madi Waln.
From there the home Warriors sailed to the 42-27 win.
Amia Cottier and Jadyn Standing Soldier led the Lady Warrior scoring with 9 points each. Hadley Schomp had a nice game with 8 points. Madi Waln chipped in 6, Taytlin Dillon 5, Kaylee Byrne 3, and Sophia May 2 points.
“The Warrior defense continues to get better and the girls did a good job in the first half of taking away the half-court sets of New Underwood,” commented head coach Duke Waln. “We took care of the boards on defense, which was a big emphasis for this game. New Underwood has some length and we knew not letting them have second chances was a key part of the game. We struggled on offense of running any of our sets.”
“I will give New Underwood credit for playing solid defense, they took away any dribble-drive opportunities that we like to use and we struggled from beyond the arc, early,” added Waln. “These girls have learned so much about the game and are learning what they are capable of accomplishing.”
Players of the game were Hadley Schomp and Sophia May.
The JV stayed unbeaten with a convincing 44-19 win over New Underwood.
Harley Harris and Reagan O’Neill powered the young Lady Warriors with the eighth graders scoring 12 points each. Peyson O’Neill added 6, Madi Waln 4, Kaylee Byrne 4, Jersey Frederick 3, Raven Heathershaw 2 and Jadyn Standing Soldier 1 point.