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Sainty Boys Defeat Weskan

St. Francis and Weskan split the basketball games that were played on January 26th. The Indian boys teams won their contests while the girls lost both of their games.

The varsity boys team jumped out to a 16-6 lead by the end of the first quarter and held on for a 30-22 advantage at halftime. In the second half, the Indians executed offensively very well at times, using good teamwork to get a good shot and also played aggressive defense. The Indians were able to extend the lead to twelve points (38-26) by the end of the third quarter and went on to win the game by a score of 58-43.

Matt Raile (23) and Trent Raile (20) led the Indians in scoring. Matt Kuykendall (11) and Garrett Reiss (10) were the leading scorers for the Coyotes.

Coach Jeff Beims made the following comments on the game:

"I think we made some good strides against Weskan Tuesday night. We really focused on our defensive intensity, and I think we learned what good “shut down” defense can do for our success. If we just look at the first quarter of that game, Weskan had the ball 11 times on their end of the floor and we turned them over 8 of those times. As a result, we had several more opportunities at our end, as evidenced by the fact that we attempted 15 shots…5 more opportunities to score than in any other quarter. We made 7 of those 15 which contributed to a great night shooting (56% from the field.)"

"I have no stats to back it up, but I’m a firm believer that defensive effort produces good shooting percentages, as we don’t worry so much about having to score every time down, and it allows us to relax a little on the offensive end when we’re confident we can stop them on their end. I was pleased with our effort, because I’ve been trying to install that type of defensive pressure for two years. Now we just have to sustain it from one game to the next and keep getting a little better every day."

The junior varsity boys also won their contest against the Coyotes. St. Francis led throughout most of the contest and won by a sixteen point margin (57-41).

The varsity girls played hard as always, and hung tough with the #10 ranked (1A) Weskan Lady Coyotes. Kaitlin Figgins and Jenna Hill missed their second consecutive game due to injuries. St. Francis trailed by one point (8-9) at the first quarter break and by six (14-20) at halftime. In the third quarter, the Lady Coyotes went on an early run and stretched the margin to thirteen points (22-35) with 2:10 remaining in the quarter. The Lady Indians trailed 24-39 at the third quarter break. St. Francis cut the deficit to ten (31-41) with approximately 6 minutes remaining in the game but could get no closer. The Lady Indians were defeated by the Weskan Lady Coyotes 36-47. 

Mikaela Grace led the Lady Indians in scoring with nine points. Christina Hilt added seven. Weskan had balanced scoring from Payton Walker (16), Hillary McKinney (12), and Jori Mote (10). The Lady Indians also lost the junior varsity contest by a score of 25-53.

Next action for the basketball teams will be in Colby on Friday, January 29th, when they play Heartland Christian. The games will begin at 5:00 PM. There will be NO junior varsity boys game. The game schedule will be junior varsity girls (2 quarters only), varsity girls, and varsity boys.