The Frontier Raiders captured their second provincial medal in the past three years at Hoopla in Moose Jaw on Saturday.
Making their fourth consecutive 1A girls Hoopla appearance, the fourth seeded Raiders went into the tournament as underdogs with a relatively young and inexperienced roster.
The Raiders fell 58-40 to top ranked Central Butte in the 1A girls semi-final on Friday. Grade 10 Melissa Peacock led the Raiders with 10 points, while Karleen May paced the Bulldogs with 21 points.
Saturday morning the Raiders regrouped to defeat Lake Lenore 61-50 led by 17 points from grade 12 post Haley Caswell to help claim the bronze medal.
“Lake Lenore was quite fast, athletic, and very good shooters. Basically we were a little bigger than them and they had a hard time stopping us inside,” explained third-year head coach Daryl Anderson.
“Haley Caswell played really well inside and all of our posts played well. They couldn’t stop our inside game. Then we made a few threes when they sagged in to stop us and we had some open looks and our threes were going in. It was just a nice balance of offense.”
The win clinched the Raiders’ second bronze medal in the past three years as they played in their fourth 1A Hoopla bronze medal game in as many years. They won bronze in 2009 with a win over Kenaston before losing to Southey in 2010. They lost to Eatonia in the bronze medal game in 2008 as well.
