Lady Storm Wins Region Championship

Grace Green’s 25 points powered the Lady Storm past Central Community College 95-80 to capture the Region IX Championship Monday, Feb. 29, at Central.

What made the results astounding was the fact that SCC had lost to Central 91-59 at home to end the regular season. And that was without two of Central’s leading scorers, Knesha Plater and Teisha Snyder.

Central had Snyder back this time around, who scored 15 points and nabbed four steals. Makalya Augustine played well again, too, scoring 14 points.

However, the Lady Storm came out hitting on all cylinders. The team shot over 53 percent from the field and over 76 percent from the free throw line.

Green had helped Southeast get a come-from-behind win over North Platte in the first round of the Region playoffs, and for this game, she had 16 points, 10 rebounds, and was a perfect 8-8 shooting at the charity stripe.

The sophomore from Henderson, Nev., followed that up with a 10-19 shooting performance from the field in the win over Central. Bree Matthews and Jalya Brown had 16 and 15 points respectively. Matthews was also perfect from the free throw line, going 6-6.

Co-Head Coach Lynn Schalke said they changed up their defensive strategy to surprise the Lady Raiders.

“(We) switched all screens and got out and denied the pass to wings, (and) we took them out of their offense rhythm, “ Schlake explained.

The coach said they were also more aggressive offensively.

“We went to and aggressive 5 (players) out with a lot of back door cuts,” Schlake said. “It gave us better shots both in and out. We also ran our sets well and scored almost every time off a set play.”

“It also helped that we shot well for once,” Sclhake added.

SCC (13-15) will head to Bismark, N.D., for a District game with United Tribes Tech (17-14) on Saturday, March. 5. The winner heads to the Division II National Tournament in Overland Park, Kan.