Lady Grizzlies To Play For District Championship

The High Desert Conference girls basketball tournament kicked off on Monday the 29th of January.  The conference consists of four teams. Grace, Butte County, Challis and Alturas Prep. The Lady Grizzlies would enter the tournament as the number one seed after going undefeated in conference play. Grace would start tournament play against Alturas Prep. Alturas is in its first year of competitive sports as a member of the High Desert Conference. With their young players they would prove to be no match for the senior led Grizzly team.  Coach Kyle Christensen would sit his starters early in this one as most of them did not play after the first quarter of play. This allowed many of the younger Grizzly players to get some tournament game experience. As a result, twelve different girls were able to get on the board. Grace would earn the easy victory over the new upstart Alturas Prep. 79-11. Walker-14, Mansfield-11, Cooper-10, Stoddard-10, Straatman-6, Steadman-6, Smith-6, Christensen-4, Andersen-3, Gilbert-3, Yost-2

The semi final round of the tournament would feature the Grizzlies taking on the Butte County Lady Pirates. Butte County had been victorious in their first round matchup against Challis.  The Lady Grizzlies and Pirates had faced off twice during the regular season.  In those games the Grizzlies had cruised to victories by an average of 40 ½ points. As this game tipped off it appeared as though Grace would once again easily run away with this game as they jumped out to an 11-2 lead. Butte would call a timeout to collect themselves and come back to the floor with renewed energy. At the end of the first quarter the Grizzly’s lead would be 13-8. From there the Pirates would continue to climb back in the game forcing a Grace timeout with Grace now only leading by two. After the timeout the Lady Grizz would push the lead and go into halftime up 26-17. In the third quarter the teams would battle back and forth but Butte would be unable to close the gap and Grace would still lead by the score of 34-23. Starting the fourth Butte would cut into the lead a little forcing a Grace timeout. After the timeout Grace would settle down and work the clock. On several possessions they were able to run the shot clock down to under five seconds before scoring. The Lady Grizzlies experience was enough to get them through this round winning 45-33. J.Christensen-10, Straatman-10, Smith-10, Andersen-6, K.Christensen-3, Stoddard-2, Yost-2, Jorgensen-2

The Lady Grizzlies will be back in action on February 8th at 7:00 p.m. as they play for the district championship.  They will take on the winner of Butte County and Challis. The championship game will take place at Thunder Ridge High School.