After winning its first two games of the season, Heart River seemed to hit a toll with back-to-back losses. In its final game before having a week break, the team was determined to get a win over Richardton-Taylor, a team still searching for its first win of the season.
It did so with a passion, ending with a 32-point difference.
The Cougars (3-2) connected all night from the field against the Raiders (0-7) a team that has struggled in the early goings of the new season.
Cougars' Head Coach Ronnie Stewart was proud of the team's effort in the 60-28 victory.
"I think the break coming back really rejuvenated the girls," he said. "It gave them a little more energy and it was definitely good for our moral and hopefully it gives us good momentum heading into the gauntlet of our regional play."
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Cougars' senior Caylee Wilke played a solid for for the team, leading with 22 points, six rebounds and three assists. Junior forward Lelani Privratsky followed with 11 points and ninth-gradeer Sage Froehlich played a solid game with eight points, eight assists, and four rebounds.
As for the Raiders' the loss was tough, but head coach Gary Ballard, still in the early goings of his first season with the team, has optimization in his team's abilities going forward.
"Our team will continue to work hard at improving on-all phases of the game," he wrote in a text to The Press. "We have a number of things to get better at: defending, rebounding, passing, shooting, ball handling, court awareness, and conditioning."
While it was a blowout at the end, both coaches acknowledge the battle that played out early on with the Cougars only having a one point lead at the end of the first quarter with a score of 11-10.
"Every game this year we started out just not shooting the ball very well in that first quarter," Stewart said. "It was only a one point game but we just told the girls to keep on shooting because we were getting wide open jump shots."
From there, Heart River took over and dominated the rest of the way.
"Our varsity group won the first quarter against a very good Heart River team," Ballard wrote. "Then Heart River handed our team very well the next three quarters. Our goal is to continue to get more consistent with our Play throughout a complete game."
The Cougars will return to action on Jan. 5 at home against Glen Ullin/Hebron, the Raiders will play Jan. 2 at home against Washburn.
