By Brooklyn Himmelberg
On Thursday, November 30, the Lady Mustangs took on the Warriors of Red Cloud. Silver Lake opened up the 2023-2024 basketball season with a hard-fought game against the Warriors. The Lady Mustangs came out shooting slow in the first quarter shooting just 18% from the field. The score of the first quarter was 4-10 Warriors. In the 2nd quarter, the Mustangs’ scoring picked up. Going into the half, the game was tied at 19. The 2nd half was close the entire time with the game tied 33 all. Overtime saw the Mustangs pick up their defense by allowing the Warriors only 1 point in overtime. The final score was 39-34 Lady Mustangs. Sophomores Sophie Schmidt and MaKenna Karr led the team with 13 and 11 points, respectively. The next two leaders in points were senior Lana Swanson and Junior Emma Schmidt with 5 points. Junior Katy Soucek had 3 points, and Senior Morgan Dinkler had 2 points. Coach Kate Sinsel said, “I thought we had some really good energy for our Red Cloud game. I was impressed with our rebounding and defense. Those two aspects of our game led us to be able to generate offense. A lot of girls stepped up and knocked down shots when we needed them to, especially down the stretch. Going into overtime, I felt confident in our girl’s abilities to pull out the win! It’s great to come out on top in a close game like that.”
The following night, the Lady Mustangs took on the Lady Dragons of Deshler. After a hard-fought battle the night before, the Lady Mustangs knew they had their work cut out for them with the tall Lady Dragons. The Mustangs struggled to get into a rhythm. The score of the 1st quarter was 8-11 with Dragons in the lead. In the 2nd quarter, the Mustangs were outscored 13-3. This quarter built too big of a deficit to overcome in the end for the Lady Mustangs, the final score being 24-41. Coach Sinsel said, “For Deshler, we were outsized, and they had a great plan to shut down our outside shooters. To start the game, we were able to hit shots and keep it close in the first quarter. However, down the stretch, Deshler’s long arms and physicality were a tough match for us. They are a disciplined team that played solid defense and handled our pressure well on offense. Although the score didn’t look great, I don’t think it showed how hard our girls worked.”