Postseason = Raider Season
Lady Raiders topple Varnum for area title, 35th trip to state
AREA CHAMPS – Lomega’s girls basketball team poses with the area championship plaque it won Monday night with a 58-40 victory over Varnum in the title tilt. The win moves Lomega into the state tournament where it looks for its 16th championship. [Phot
By its standards, Lomega might have limped into the postseason.
Once there, however, the Lady Raiders sprinted to the state tournament.
Lomega locked up its 35th appearance at state Monday night with a 58-40 victory against No. 5 Varnum in a Class B area championship at Stroud.
The two-time defending champs secured their fourth consecutive state bid by holding the Lady Whippets to just 11 second-half points to break open what was a one-point game at halftime.
State tournament brackets weren’t released until Wednesday (after press time), but Lomega will begin its quest for a 16th title on Thursday.
“Our half-court defense was just pretty good,” said coach Kevin Lewallen of the second-half shutdown of Varnum.
Neither team scored for the first two minutes of the second half and it was a 37-35 Lomega lead with under 3:00 to play in the third.
The Lady Raiders eventually got going; Varnum never did.
Lomega scored the final nine points of the third quarter to lead 46-35.
The Lady Raiders then started the fourth with a
The game was over.
5-0 spurt to go up 51-35 on Hensley Eaton’s 3-pointer 36 seconds into it.
The game was over. Varnum was led by Jesslyn Works’ nine points.
Darcy Roberts paced Lomega with 19 points.
She had 10 at half and then added seven points during Lomega’s decisive run in the third.
Walker scored 10 and Abby Swart nine.
Swart scored seven in the first quarter as Lomega got out to an 18-12 lead.
Eaton added eight points as Lomega improved to 22-5.
Lomega lost two of its final three regular-season games, one by 20 points to Luther and the other by 17 to Seiling.
Since those back-to-back losses, Lomega has won five straight by an average of 44.6 points.
The top-ranked Lady Raiders will enter state as the top seed.
Other teams that qualified Monday night were No. 2 Hammon, No. 3 Pittsburg and No. 6 Duke.