Lady Grizz Drop A Pair Of Tough Games

The Lady Grizzlies made the trek across the state to New Plymouth to play a pair of worthy opponents last weekend.  Grace took on the New Plymouth Lady Pilgrims on Friday and the Prairie Lady Pirates on Saturday.

In their first game of the weekend against New Plymouth the Lady Grizzlies took on the sixth 3A school this season.  The Lady Grizzlies had beaten their first five 3A opponents and hoped to keep that trend going.  As the game got underway accomplishing that feat became a difficult task very quickly.  The Lady Pilgrims jumped out to an early lead.  At one point New Plymouth was up 8-1.  Before the end of the quarter the Lady Grizzlies were able to put up a few more points but only went one for five from the foul line and trailed by five total points.  Grace had a much more productive second quarter putting up thirteen total points but still shot under fifty percent from the foul line.  Despite the Lady Grizzlies better output the Lady Pilgrims bested them once again in the quarter and extended the lead to seven.  In the third quarter the Lady Grizzlies began to make some headway and closed the deficit to just a single possession but just as they did New Plymouth had a run of their own.  When the quarter finally ended the Lady Grizzlies once again faced a net loss and now trailed by eight.  Finally in the fourth quarter Grace began closing in on the Lady Pilgrims.  However even with the momentum in their favor the Lady Grizzlies simply ran out of time and suffered just their second loss of the season and their first to a 3A school.

The next morning the Lady Grizzlies were back in action once again playing in New Plymouth but this time matched up against the Lady Pirates from Prairie.  This was the first time this season that Grace would play a fellow 2A school.  Few teams regardless of size can match the Lady Grizzlies size under the basket but the Lady Pirates are one that can.  In fact you may even argue that Prairie had the slight size advantage overall.  Regardless of who had the advantage physically the Lady Pirates were very effective in using their size both on the boards and while pressing the Lady Grizzlies.  Even with the size working against them the Lady Grizzlies were still able to build an eight point lead in the first half of play.  Unfortunately Grace would not be able to hold that large of lead going into the break.  In the closing moments of the first half that eight point lead quickly dwindled through a series of events to just a single point going into the half.  Just thirty seconds into the third quarter the Lady Grizzlies’ one point lead suddenly turned into a two point deficit.  In a very physical third quarter in which the Lady Pirates led most of the way, Grace could not get over the hump and trailed by one going into the final quarter.  With the game still close and with just two minutes left the Lady Pirates hit a three point shot to go up four.  Now with just forty seconds left and still trailing by four Yost put up a shot and got fouled earning an and one opportunity.  Yost missed the foul shot and the lead stayed at two.  The Grizzlies would have one more opportunity to extend the game when Jorgensen would get fouled in the closing seconds.  Jorgensen would hit the front end of the two foul shots but miss the second one and once again time would run out on the Lady Grizzlies as they lost a heartbreaker by a single point.

The Lady Grizzlies will face another tough 2A opponent this week when they host the Valley Lady Vikings on Thursday.  They will look to bounce back and try to retain a top five ranking in the state in that game.

Grizzlies 5 13 15 10 43

Pilgrims 10 15 16 7 48

K. Stoddard 5, C. Smith 6, P. Steadman 10, C. Yost 9, A. Cooper 1, T. Jorgensen 7, P. Hatch 3

Grizzlies 8 10 9 10 37

Pirates 6 11 11 10 38

K. Stoddard 3, C. Smith 5, A. Rasmussen 6, P. Steadman 13, C. Yost 4, T. Jorgensen 4