Langford Area girls basketball coach Michael Alberts hopes his club set the tone for a postseason run with a big 50-43 comeback victory over Faulkton on Friday.
The Lady Lions played Aberdeen Christian last night Tuesday and will wrap up regular season play on Thursday by hosting Tiospa Zina for a game that has been postponed twice (JV 6:30 p.m., varsity to follow).
Region 1B tournament play begins on Monday with a pair of play-in games and based on power points through Monday night fourth-seeded Langford Area (11-7) would host fifth seed Waverly-South Shore (10-9) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Pairings could change depending on games played later this week but as of Tuesday seventh seed Tiospa Zina (5-12) would host number 10 Wilmot (1-18) and eighth seed Leola-Frederick (7-11) would host ninth seed Aberdeen Christian (3-14) in Monday’s play-in contests.
Other Tuesday matchups pair top-seeded Waubay-Summit (17-2) against the winner of the Leola-Frederick and Aberdeen Christian contest, two seed Warner (17-2) will host the Tiospa Zina-Wilmot winner, and third seed Northwestern (11-6) will host sixth seed Hitchcock-Tulare (10-9).
Langford Area and Faulkton entered their Lake Region Conference clash with identical 10-7 records and for three quarters the Trojans were in control, leading by as many as 15 points (33-18) in the third period. But then the comeback began. The Lady Lions went on a 9-1 run to cut the margin to 34-27 after three periods and then exploded for 23 fourth quarter points to post the seven-point win.
“We put a press on in the second half and just kind of got on a roll,” said Alberts. “The girls were covering the press really well and making it hard for Faulkton to get the ball across half court, and we were able to capitalize on that. We were talking about it after the game and this win would be right up there with the regional game against Great Plains Lutheran a couple of years ago when we came back from being down about 25.”
Alberts thinks the win will be a confidence booster for his squad heading into regional play.
“We’ve been working to pick up our pace of play and the Faulkton game was the start of how we want to play,” stressed Alberts. “You could tell in the locker room after the game that it was a confidence-builder for us. Keys for us in the region are to be all over the court defensively, move the ball around offensively to get good shots, and to take care of the ball. Hopefully we can make some noise in the postseason.”
Brooklynn West led a balanced scoring effort for the Lady Lions with 13 points, Paytyn Marlow added 11, Lizzie Gustafson nine and Alex Darling eight. Gustafson pulled down eight rebounds, Darling dished out five assists, and Marlow had four steals.
FOR FULL STATS SEE THIS WEEK'S JOURNAL
