LAKE LENORE — The Lake Lenore/Middle Lake Lancers 1A Girls have won their Hoopla home championship, defeating Gladmar 85 to 33, a game which Coach Curtis Strueby called the “best game in the year.”
Strueby attributed the win to a game plan of wearing down their opponents with front court pressure, a strategy they had been using throughout the year to use their 13 player bench.
“That was our go to, that’s what we've been wanting to try to do the whole year and we just got better and better at it as the year went on,” Strueby said.
“We can roll a lot of girls out there without missing a beat and it really worked.”
In the court, Stueby said it culminated in the players creating chaos including turnovers in the front court, getting steals, and working to get behind the opponent and forcing them to foul.
“We knew that they were not pushovers, and sure enough they ended up in the final… Hats off to them for doing so, it’s a great accomplishment for them as well – these small schools that stuck with basketball throughout all of this, throughout all of COVID. It’s pretty special, it’s been a long couple of years.”
Strueby said that this season was especially difficult due to the unknowns created by COVID-19, leaving the players unsure if there would be a tournament, but despite this team stuck in the court and continued regular practices.
“We had a real up and down season with COVID. We played a lot in December and then we didn’t play a game in January due to all our tournaments and games being cancelled due to COVID,” he said.
“Come February we got back into a groove, started playing again and just got better and better.”
Gladmar has been a rival for the Lancers since earlier this season when they came face to face in Middle Lake. While the Lancers won the encounter, Strueby said with the quality of the team they faced it’s likely they would cross paths again.
“A great big thank you to the communities and schools of Middle Lake and Lake Lenore… We could not have done this without the support of the parents, the staff, the community members and the past students.”
