Girl cagers have more FTs and threes, but also more TOs

The silver lining is that the Raider girls basketball team was just a couple of three pointers away from a win.

Still, they did lose 46-41 to River Falls last week.

“The only positive was that we played our worst game of the year and only lost by five points,” Coach Beth Graskewicz said.

Seven Raiders scored at least three points, and Kaitlyn Haag led the way with 12. Morgan Zabel had seven points.

“The game went like we expected,” Graskewicz said. The Raiders had a good first half and led 12-10 at the end of the first quarter, but in the final two periods, the pressure by River Falls got to the Hudson’s offense.

Also, Hudson did not have a good week of practice, and they suffered defensively, she said. “It wasn’t our night.”

River Falls got to the foul line to attempt 20 free throws, making half, and the Raiders were even better at this particular phase of the game, going 12 of 22 from the line. Three of their 13 field goals were three-pointers.

Rice Lake comes to town for a 7:30 p.m. game on Friday.

Graskewicz noted that all the teams except Eau Claire North in a balanced Big Rivers Conference have a loss, and that Rice Lake is 0-2. “So we have to be ready to play each night,” she said. “We need to gain consistency and build from game to game.”

She herself has not seen Rice Lake play this year. “We sent someone to scout Rice Lake this week, and we know that we’ll again see a lot of pressure and we need to take advantage of that.”

Putting on a press has been a main way for opponents to attack Hudson.

“We need to recognize pressure, because we’re going to see it every game, in its different forms,” Graskewicz said. “We have a tendency to try to go (up-court) as fast as we can go. We work on (being more patient) every day in practice.”

Her charges need to learn to pass through the press, not dribble, and know how to take different angles and when to cut. “It’s a matter of timing,” Graskewicz said, adding this is something that can be taught in practice.”

Tags: sports, hudson, raiders, girls_basketball