Fifth-seeded Hitchcock-Tulare avenged a five-point regular season loss to fourth seed Langford Area by stopping the Lady Lions 60-40 in quarterfinal play of the Region 1B girls basketball tournament last week Tuesday in Langford.
LA finished its season with a 13-8 record, while Hitchcock-Tulare fell to Waubay-Summit 52-41 in semifinal action and posted a 12-10 season mark.
“It was just one of those nights where things weren’t going our way,” said LA coach Michael Alberts. “We had some good open shots early that have fallen for us this year, but they didn’t fall for us this game.
“You have to give credit to Hitchcock-Tulare. They got things going early with knocking down shots and played pretty good defense on us, and they played well all game long. Every time we started making a little comeback in the second half, they would end our little run with a three.”
Hitchcock-Tulare’s Gracyn Bixler, who hit a game-high 19 points, came out on fire for the Lady Patriots, hitting seven points in the first 3:30 to boost her club to a 9-3 margin. LA’s Josie Jensen and Alex Darling each hit a pair of free tosses and Brooklynn West added another to cut the margin to 11-8.
But then the visitors, led by Bixler, took charge. The senior guard fueled a 17-3 run in just over five minutes with eight more counters to give H-T a 28-11 lead with 4:08 left in the first half and the Lady Patriots were up 34-16 at intermission.
The Lady Lions struggled shooting the ball in the first half but came out of their offensive doldrums to start the third quarter. Paytyn Marlow hit a pair of treys and Darling added another, but the Lady Braves still were down 16.
Then H-T went on an 8-0 run to push the lead to 24 to start the final stanza. Darling and Marlow netted fielders and Lizzie Gustafson was fouled on a three-point attempt and hit all three free tosses to cut the margin to 17, but that was as close as LA would get.
Marlow netted 13 and Darling laced 10 to lead Langford Area.
“Even though our season didn’t end the way we wanted it to, these girls have a lot to be proud of,” stressed Alberts. “I think this team took some great steps this year. We saw some great improvement and everyone raised their level of play. We had a lot of ups and downs, but these girls were always ready the next day at practice to get better.”
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