The Lindsay Thurber Raiders senior girls cruised to an 88-40 win Thursday over the Lacombe Rams in 4A Central Alberta Schools Athletic Association basketball action.
The number one ranked Raiders used their speed and athleticism to earn the decisive victory and head coach Kathy Lalor said over she liked the performance from her group.
“We’ve been working on some things and we started doing them in the game so I was pretty happy,” Lalor said.
“We played Lacombe first game of the season and they’re a lot better. Those girls should be proud of themselves. The score wasn’t really indicative of their play. They’ve improved a ton, but so have we.”
Hayley Lalor led the way for Lindsay Thurber in the win with 19 points, while Emma Holmes chipped in 17. Jamie Lalor notched 11 points and Faith Kreiser was also in double figures with 10.
“We’re pretty fast and we’re hard for other teams to play. They like each other and they play hard for each other. A couple of our bigs had the best game they’ve had this season. We’re coming along,” Lalor said.
The Raiders have a veteran-laden lineup, with seven grade 12 girls and most have been coached by Lalor for two years.
“They work hard, there are two or three girls in there trying to get every single rebound,” she said.
“They are a fun group of kids to coach are they are very nice to each and they play hard for each other because of that.”
The 4A finals tip-off on March 6 at 6 p.m., at LTCHS with the Raiders taking on the Notre Dame Cougars in a best-of-three series.
Notre Dame topped the Hunting Hills Lightning 60-46 Thursday night in the other senior girls semi-final.
Senior Boys
The Lindsay Thurber Raiders senior boys also pulled off a wild upset on Thursday night.
They knocked off the second seed Notre Dame Cougars at Notre Dame 81-77 in a crazy, back-and-forth contest.
The Raiders led 42-39 at half and 63-56 after three quarters, but with 55 seconds left the advantage was cut to just 77-76.
Sean Vandervlis hit a clutch three-pointer, his third of the game with only 32 seconds left and the shot clock about to expire to put Lindsay Thurber up 80-76.
“(Notre Dame) goes hard, huge credit to them. We knew they wouldn’t give up. We just said 40 minutes of basketball and it came down to the last second there. It was good,” said Raiders senior boys Carl Light.
Kade Best led the way on offense for the Raiders with 19 points including four triples. The Raiders play behind the arc was a big part of the victory.
“We shoot pretty well from the outside. We like to have a combination of inside and outside. When we’re on with the three-point shooting, it’s definitely positive for us,” Light said.
Jared Lower also chipped in 14 points for the Raiders while Vince Barbuco had 13.
Rudy Soffo had a monster fourth quarter for the Cougars with 10 points and 17 total in the loss. Issac Colosimo also had a big game for Notre Dame with 18 points.
The number one ranked Lacombe Rams topped the Hunting Hills Lightning 75-52 to earn their spot in the final. Game 1 of the best-of-three 4A senior boys final goes March 6 at LTCHS with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.
In 3A boys semi-final action, Camrose will host West Central on March 5 and Wetaskiwin will host H.J Cody.
On the senior girls side in 3A play, Wetaskiwin will play H.J. Cody in the semifinals and St. Joseph’s will host W.M. E. Hay on March 5.
Email sports tips to Byron Hackett
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