The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

From head coach Travis Baumann, "Our team finished the regular season 15-3 overall and 11-1 in conference play, finishing the season as Co-Conference Champions with CJI. We play our first District game Thursday night at 5:30 vs Hays. Thank you for all the support this season, and we hope to see you for a long tournament run! Go Pioneers!"

The Lady Pioneers had a successful end to their regular season this past weekend, winning both games. They beat the Lady Longhorns by 10 points in Fort Benton with a final score of 41-31. Then they turned around and Played the Lady Bears in Big Sandy on senior night by 17 points with a final score of 60-43.

The Lady Pioneers had a rough start to begin the game, having 3 turnovers in the first minute and a half, but quickly gathered themselves and had some great plays from Lainey Terry with a big steal. Jenny Sant also had 2 big steals, with one giving her a chance to score a fast break layup. Eva Yeadon also had two big steals with a couple of buckets, and Jai Baumann and Keira Galbavy also had a couple of big steals, with Keira scoring on a fast break layup. The Lady Pioneers went up 15-7 in the 1st quarter heading into the 2nd quarter.

The Lady Pioneers scored from a free throw and a bucket by Alex Worral, but after that, they didn't score in the 2nd quarter. The Lady Longhorns also struggled but did score 5 points in the 2nd quarter. Both teams had a rough time finding the bottom of the net and scored for less than half the quarter. The Lady Pioneers were still on top going into halftime, scoring 18-12.

The 2nd half started the same way the 2nd had ended, with both teams having difficulty scoring. The first points came from Fort Benton with almost 2 minutes off the clock. Putting them only down 3 points. After some great plays to get them back in the game from Keira, Jenny, Jai, and Eva working as a team, put them up 10 points in the last stanza.

The last quarter was a battle like the 3rd quarter, with both teams trading baskets the whole quarter, with the Lady Pioneers winning by ten with a final score of 41-31.

When asking Coach Travis how he felt about the game, he said, "Against Fort Benton, we started off good in the first quarter, 15-7, but then we allowed Fort Benton to dictate the pace of the game. We ended up with a 41-31 win. Again, our defense shined throughout the game, holding Fort Benton to 23% shooting while we shot 43%. Baumann led the team in scoring with 15, followed by Galbavy and Yeadon with 11 each. The same trio of girls led the team with 7 rebounds each. Sant led the team with 3 assists, followed by Yeadon, Galbavy, and Baumann with two each. Sant and Baumann led the team in steals with 3 each, followed by Yeadon and Galbavy with two each. Galbavy had two blocks on the night.”

The Lady Pioneers then turned around and played the Lady Bears at home for senior night. The ladies came out ready to play with aggressive defense, causing the Lady Bears to turn the ball over. All 5 starters contributed again with steals, great passes, and nice shots, putting them up by 8 points after the 1st quarter, with a score of 12-4.

The following 3 quarters were very similar to the first, with tough defense by the Lady Pioneers, great hustle plays, nice shots, great rebounds, and passing across the board with all 5 players, no matter who was on the floor. The Lady Pioneers scored 22 points at one point and finished winning by 17 points with a score of 60-43.

When asking Coach Travis how he felt about this, he said, "Against Box Elder, our defense again was our main attraction, forcing 28 turnovers and getting 20 steals while only committing 12 turnovers! We had 15 assists on 27 made field goals for 56% assist-to-field goal!

Yeadon led all scorers with 27, followed by Baumann with 13 and Sant with 7. Yeadon led all rebounders with 14, followed by Sant and Galbavy with 7. Baumann had 11 assists, followed by Lainey Terry and Sant with 2 each. Baumann led the team in steals with 11, followed by Terry and Yeadon with 3 each. Baumann had our first Triple Double of the year!”