By Sydney Bartels
Wrapping up the 2023-2024 basketball season, the Silver Lake Lady Mustangs headed into their Subdistrict game held on Tuesday, February 13th. Heading into the tournament, the Lady Mustangs were seeded number one ahead of Blue Hill, Red Cloud, Sandy Creek, and Kenesaw. Because the team was the top seed, they had a bye in the first round of Subdistricts when Sandy Creek defeated Blue Hill. Silver Lake then took on the Sandy Creek Cougars on the 13th. The game was a constant-fought battle, with each team demonstrating their strengths throughout the night. Sophomore Makenna Karr and junior Emma Schmidt led the Mustangs in points, each scoring eight points. Seniors Morgan Dinkler and Lana Swanson were close behind with five each to add to the team total of 35. However, the girls couldn’t compete with Sandy Creek’s Ryleigh Skalka. Senior Taylor Hanson commented, “I think there were a lot of high emotions coming back from the loss against Meridian. We all had the right mindset and ambition, we just didn’t execute like we had hoped.” Skalka drained 26 of their total 51 points for the night. Nonetheless, the girls fought hard, defensively outrebounding Sandy Creek 18-16. It just wasn’t enough to put an end to the Cougars’ season. After defeating the Lady Mustangs, the Sandy Creek Cougars took on the Red Cloud Warriors in the next round of the subdistrict tournament.