Lady Raiders wrap up outright GMC crown

HAVILAND — It definitely wasn’t pretty. And it wasn’t the way it was scripted by any means. But it still ended with an outright Green Meadows Conference championship.

After a good start, the Lady Raiders battled through an ugly second half to get past visiting Tinora 45-35 and claim the fourth outright league title Thursday night at the Palace. It is also the sixth overall conference crown for Wayne Trace and second straight under the direction of Raider head coach Bethany DeJarnett.

“It is good to win the league,” noted the Lady Raiders head coach. “It is a challenge to go through the league schedule without a loss so I give our girls credit for that. They had to win some big games on the road this year and they were able to do that.”

Wayne Trace finishes the regular season with a 19-3 overall record and 7-0 in the GMC. The Lady Raiders will open sectional action on Saturday, Feb. 24, when they travel to Defiance for a 3 p.m. game against either North Central or Fayette.

“We know we have to be better than what we played this week,” DeJarnett said. “We will get back to work next week and improve in some areas that we need to get better at.”

Thursday night was a struggle for the Lady Raiders as Wayne Trace hit only 9 of 18 free throws and committed 16 turnovers. However, one bright spot was rebounding, as the Lady Raiders outrebounded the taller Rams 38-22.

“Foul shooting has been a strength for us this year but we struggled there tonight,” added the Raider coach. “But I thought the girls did a nice job of rebounding and we were able to get some big offensive rebounds.”

The Lady Raiders jumped in front quickly against the Rams, scoring eight of the first 10 points of the contest in opening a 15-8 advantage after eight minutes of action. Wayne Trace then pushed the margin to 21-8 early in the second quarter after 3-pointers from Chelsea Sinn and Brooke Sinn.

“I thought we got off to a good start,” DeJarnett said, “but then we just didn’t play the way we are capable of the rest of the way.”

The Lady Raiders used a late second quarter basket from Gracie Gudakunst and a 3-pointer by Brooke Sinn to take a 28-14 halftime advantage.

Neither team played well in the third quarter. The two squads combined to commit 15 turnovers, hit 4 of 14 shots from the field and 6 of 15 free throws along with making just one of six 3-point attempts. Tinora did outscore Wayne Trace 9-6 in the period to trim the deficit to 34-23 at the end of three quarters.

The Rams then made their final run in the fourth quarter. Baskets by Taylor Brown and Lexi Wachtman along with a 3-pointer by Madison Brown cut the Tinora deficit to 38-31 with 3:36 left in the contest.

Following a Ram timeout, Wayne Trace quickly responded with a pair of Sadie Sinn foul shots and a basket by Claire Sinn to extend the margin back to 43-32 before settling on the 45-35 victory.

Claire Sinn led all scorers with 16 points in recording a double-double, adding a dozen rebounds to go along with a pair of steals. Sadie Sinn chipped in 8 points, 6 and 2 assists while Kaylee Shepherd added 7 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

Amber Schliesser topped Tinora with 10 points and 5 rebounds.

Wayne Trace’s junior varsity wrapped up its season with a record of 14-7 overall and 5-1 in the GMC with a 38-24 victory.

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