After coming off of a long week of snow days, the Lady Pirates started their busy weekend and upcoming week at Stockton, on Friday, February 1st, against the Lady Blackhawks. The Pirates played the Blackhawks earlier in the season at GHS and got defeated by only two points, so they were ready for redemption.

“When we played them early on, we knew that they were a good team,” said Gracie Wubben ‘20. “We really focused on guarding their key players well and playing good defense all around.”

“When we lost by two points, we were excited that we came that close with such a good team,” said Corrina Noble ‘21. “But we knew that we couldn’t be satisfied with that and needed to focus on getting better for the next time we play them.”

The Pirate’s came out for this game hot! They were ahead of the Blackhawks the whole first half and played phenomenal defense. The Pirate’s scored 17 points in the first quarter and 11 in the second. They held the very talented Stockton girls to only 20 points in the first half, making the score 28-20, Pirate’s, heading into the locker room at halftime. Gracie Wubben and Sami Wasmund led the Pirate’s with 9 points each.

“We knew that we just had to keep playing our game and pushing to keep the lead,” said Maggie Furlong ‘22. “Our goal was to come out, get a stop and a score, and put us up by 10.”

Unfortunately, the Pirate’s didn’t come out as hot as they did at the beginning. They allowed 17 points in the third quarter and only scored 5. They talked about slowing down and working for a good shot, but they just couldn’t seem to get one.

“We get excited when we are doing good, and sometimes start going too fast,” said Sami Wasmund ‘20. “We need to work on pulling it out and running an offense to try to get a good look.”

They were hoping to come out a little stronger in the fourth quarter, but still got outscored 7-13. The Pirate’s got defeated by a score of 40-50. The lead scorer was Sami Wasmund with 17 and Gracie Wubben adding 10.

“It was a little upsetting that we lost to a team that we came so close with the first time playing them,” said Lizzy Eaton ‘20. “But we knew we had to put that game behind us and focus on the upcoming week, regionals!”

Regionals start on Monday, February 4th in Galena. The Pirate’s play the Warren Warriors at 7pm. The winner goes on to play Eastland in the regional semi-finals on Tuesday February 5th in Galena. River Ridge-Scales Mound plays East Dubuque on Tuesday night as well. The winner on those two games will advance to the Regional Championship on Friday, February 8th