RAIDERETTES FALL IN REGIONALS

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Username

Password

Login

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.

Email

Submit

← Back

Two out of three usually isn’t bad. It’s not bad when you make two of your three three-pointers for example or hit safely in two of your three plate appearances in softball.

The Raiderette basketball team had a rough offensive night in their Class 1A Region 6 semifinal against 1A No. 15 Lenox. The Raiderettes, ranked No. 9, shot a season-worst 23.5 percent from the floor in the game, falling to the Tigers 36-32.
The loss ends the promising season for Mount Ayr, one that had legitimate state tournament dreams.

“This one is tough to take. We played great defense, holding their two top scorers to single-digit scoring. We held them to 36, Cox to 6 and Reed to 8 you should win. We just couldn’t make shots,” said a disappointed Mount Ayr coach Thad Streit.
“We didn’t execute or shoot the ball well. We rushed the shots we took, we were panicking and shot quickly and shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” he said.

Mount Ayr had won four straight games coming into the contest with their last loss, a 10-point, 60-50 defeat at Lenox. The Tigers had won their last two games after having fallen to Stanton by one point, 51-50 on February 10.
Neither team shot the basketball well in the game as Mount Ayr shot 23.5 percent and was 3-for-21 from the three-point line, and Lenox shot 33-percent and was 3-for-22 from the three-point line.

Mount Ayr was led by sophomore Izzy Gilbertson’s double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Dannie Stewart added 7 points and 5 rebounds. No Lenox player reached double figures in the game. Zoey Reed had 9 points and Delany Funk chipped in 8 points and 6 rebounds. Tough Lenox senior Saide Cox had 13 rebounds, the Raiderettes held her to only 6 points in the game.

“This stings. We did some good things though, one loss in the regular season, a POI outright title, and a postseason win. We just didn’t want the season to end like this,” said Streit.

Mount Ayr will say goodbye to seniors Breya Nickle, Jaxy Knight, and Allison Anderson. The Raiderettes will have three starters back next year led by juniors Jaylee Shaffer, Dannie Stewart, and Izzy Gilbertson as well as key reserves and several promising newcomers as they look to defend their POI title and make another postseason run.

Lenox led 15-6 after the first quarter and survived a 12-7 Mount Ayr run in the second half to still lead at halftime, 22-18. The first hoop of the game was from Mount Ayr’s Izzy Gilbertson almost 90 seconds into the game for a 2-0 lead. Lenox would then go on a 10-0 run with four different players scoring. Lenox’s Izzy Curtis would score five of those points, and end up with five points scored in the game. Zoey Reed, Sadie Cox, and Delany Funk also had points in the run. Mount Ayr would close the gap to four points, 10-6, but a 5-0 Lenox run set the score at 15-6.
Mount Ayr would get the first points of the second quarter on a Dannie Stewart three-pointer to set the score at 15-9. Later a Nickle three-pointer got Mount Ayr within five points, 17-12. A Stewart bucket with 5:40 left before halftime got Mount Ayr within three, 17-14, but Lenox answered right back with a three-point play by Bentley Petersen to take a 6-point, 20-14 lead.

The Tigers would lead 22-18 at halftime.
The Raiderettes held the Tigers to only four points in the third quarter while taking their first lead after the end of a quarter, 27-26. A Stewart bucket in the lane with 3:24 left in the quarter tied the game at 24, part of a 6-2 run by Mount Ayr after halftime. A Jaxy Knight three-pointer with 2:35 left in the quarter gave the Raiderettes a 27-24 lead.
Lenox would double up the Radierettes in the final quarter, out-scoring Mount Ayr 10-5 to seal the four-point win.
The Tigers began the final quarter on a 5-0 run with a Saide Cox basket, beating a triple team to give Lenox a 28-27 lead. On the next Tigers possession, Zoey Reed drilled a three-pointer from the right win to extend the Lenox lead to 31-27 with 6:43 left in the game. Mount Ayr trailed by five, 33-28 with 3:33 left in the game. Two Nickle free throws brought Mount Ayr within 33-30. The score was the same when an Izzy Gilbertson hoop pulled Mount Ayr within one-point, 33-32 with 1:11 left in the game. It would be the last points of the game for Mount Ayr.
With 38 seconds left Zoey Reed picked up a blocking foul on Stewart and made one of two free throws to give Lenox a 34-32 lead. Mount Ayr nearly got a steal off their press with 24 seconds left in the game, but a jump ball gave the possession to Lenox. Zoey Reed missed a shot with 18 seconds left, but a bad bounce gave the Tigers the ball back, still 34-32. With 14.5 seconds left, junior Piper Browkaw made two free throws to give Lenox a 36-32 lead. Mount Ayr could not get closer.

Slow start, big finish, sends Raiderettes to second round

A big win for the Mount Ayr girl’s basketball team in the Class 1A Region 6 tournament came from a big second half in a 67-36 win over Lamoni on February 18. The victory was the Raiderette’s 21st of the season. Mount Ayr advanced to play Lenox in the Region 6 semifinals. Mount Ayr beat Lamoni 86-39 in the first game of this season, back on November 26.

A slow start to the game saw the first points scored with 5:18 left in the first quarter on a three-pointer from Lamoni’s Lauren Olson. Mount Ayr answered 20 seconds later when Breya Nickle got free in the lane for a bucket to cut Lamoni’s lead to 3-2. Lamoni took a 5-2 lead at 4:15 after a basket by Taylor Henson. With 3:37 left in the quarter, a Henson steal and pass to Allyson Martin for a lay-up in transition gave the Demons a 7-2 lead. Mount Ayr would rally, scoring the final five points of the quarter to tie the game at 7-7 after the first quarter.

A Nickle hoop in transition gave the Raiderettes their first lead of the game, 9-7, 45 seconds into the second quarter. Another Nickle hoop with 6:47 left in the half gave Mount Ayr an 11-7 lead. A Jaylee Shaffer basket gave Mount Ayr a 13-7 lead and a 6-0 run to start the second quarter. Lamoni would rally, scoring twice in a minutes time, the second time, a steal and score by Henson to cut Mount Ayr’s lead to 13-11. The Raiderettes would answer, using a 7-2 run over the final four minutes to take a halftime lead of 20-13.

In the second half, the Raiderettees made some adjustments and really saw their offense come alive. Mount Ayr outscored Lamoni 26-14 in the third quarter and used a 21-9 fourth-quarter run to outscore the Demons 47-23 in the second half.
Mount Ayr had four players reach double figures in the win. Dannie Stewart led with 15 points, 6 steals, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Breya Nickle had 13 points while Izzy Gilbertson had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaxy Knight had 12 points, 6 steals, and 6 rebounds. Taylor Henson led all scorers with 19 points to go with 7 rebounds and 6 steals. Mount Ayr held a 41 to 37 rebound advantage and made 12-of-15 free throw attempts in the game.

Lenox 36, Mount Ayr 32
Friday, February 21 at Mount Ayr

1 2 3 4 Final
L 15 7 4 10 36
MA 6 12 9 5 32

LENOX (32): Zoey Reed 3-13 2-4 9, Delaney Funk 4-6 0-0 8, Izzy Curtis 2-8 0-0 5, Bentley Petersen 1-1 1-1 3, Sadie Cox 3-7 0-2 6, Piper Brokaw 0-3 2-2 2, Reese Reed 1-4 0-0 3. Totals: 14-42 5-9 36.

MOUNT AYR (32): Jaylee Shaffer 0-3 0-0 0, Dannie Stewart 3-9 0-0 7, Breya Nickle 1-7 2-2 5, Jaxy Knight 1-10 1-2 4, Izzy Gilbertson 7-18 2-4 16, Abby Larson 0-1 0-0 0, Emma Reynolds 0-0 0-0 0, MaKel Jones 0-3 0-0 0, Keely Wasteney 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 12-51 5-8 32.

3-Pt. FG: Lenox 3-22 (Curtis 1-6, Zoey Reed 1-6, Reese Reed 1-4), MA 3-21 (Knight 1-9, Nickle 1-5, Stewart 1-2, Shaffer 0-3, Larson 0-1, Jones 0-1). Rebounds: Lenox 32 (Cox 13, Funk 6), MA 27 (Gilbertson 12, Stewart 5, Nickle 5, Shaffer 2, Larson 2, Knight 1). Assists: Lenox 10 (Zoe Reed 4, Curtis 2, Reese Reed 2), MA 10 (Shaffer 4, Nickle 2, Knight 2, Gilbertson 2). Steals: Lenox 1 (Z. Reed 1), MA 11 (Gilbertson 4, Knight 4, Stewart 2, Jones 1). Blocked Shots: Lenox 1 (Curtis 1), MA 4 (Gilbertson 3, Shaffer 1). Turnovers: Lenox 16, MA 5. Total Fouls: Leneox 9, MA 17. Fouled Out: none.

Mount Ayr 67, Lamoni 36
Tuesday, February 18 at Mount Ayr

1 2 3 4 Final
L 7 6 14 9 36
MA 7 13 26 21 67

LAMONI (36): Taylor Henson 7-17 2-5 19, Lauren Olson 3-9 0-0 7, Meredith Howell 0-1 0-0 0, Allyson Martin 2-5 1-2 5, Haelyn Olson 2-4 0-0 5, Karlee Hamaker 0-0 0-0 0, Cortlyn Holmes 0-0 0-0 0, Nailyah Nary 0-0 0-0 0, Karli Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Karis Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-37 3-7 36.

MOUNT AYR (67): Jaylee Shaffer 1-8 2-2 4, Dannie Stewart 5-10 4-5 15, Breya Nickle 4-13 5-6 13, Jaxy Knight 5-17 0-0 12, Izzy Gilbertson 6-14 0-0 12, Abby Larson 0-1 0-0 0, Emma Reynolds 0-1 0-0 0, MaKel Jones 2-3 1-2 6, Tatum Friedrich 2-4 0-0 5, Keely Wasteney 0-2 0-0 0, Allison Anderson 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 25-74 12-15 67.

3-Pt. FG: 5-16 (Knight 2-5, Stewart 1-1, Jones 1-1, Friedrich 1-1, Shaffer 0-4, Nickle 0-2, Reynolds 0-1, Wasteney 0-1). Rebounds: 41 (Gilbertson 10, Shaffer 9, Knight 6, Stewart 5, Nickle 4, Wasteney 2, Larson 2, Reynolds 1, Jones 1, Friedrich 1). Assists: 20 (Shaffer 4, Stewart 4, Nickle 3, Gilbertson 3, Knight 2, Jones 2, Larson 1, Wasteney 1). Steals: 29 (Stewart 6, Knight 6, Gilbertson 5, Jones 4, Shaffer 4, Nickle 2, Larson 1, Friedrich 1). Blocked Shots: 5 (Gilbertson 4, Knight 1). Turnovers: 15. Total Fouls: 10. Fouled Out: none.