LADY CRUSADERS FALL TO THE LADY THORPES

The packed field house. Photos courtesy of Shawnta' Jones. Copyright Red Cloud Indian School.

LADY CRUSADERS FALL TO THE LADY THORPES

By Shawnta' Jones '14 and Kirkland Ross '14

The Lady 'Saders were out for revenge, but were unable to come out victorious against the Pine Ridge Lady Thorpes, losing 80-53 on Tuesday night in the Paul "Dizzy" Trout Memorial Field House.

This was a huge rivalry rematch from the LNI Championship game. Pine Ridge came into the game with a record of 7-1, while Red Cloud had a record of 4-3. Pine Ridge stormed out from the beginning of the game and ended the first quarter with the score of 23-6. At half, Pine Ridge was leading the game by the score of 49 to 23.  The third quarter saw no change in effort from either team, and the score was 39-67.

Santana White Dress and Cortez Standing Bear led the Thorpes with 17 points each. Nettie Bettelyoun added nine rebounds to help Pine Ridge win this game after their first loss of the season against the Sturgis Scoopers on Saturday night in Pine Ridge.

Savannah Jensen and Terra Garnier had the leading scores for the Red Cloud Crusaders with 13 points each.

“It seems like we didn’t come out with the fire that we needed and that we were capable of having. We could have done better,”  said CeCe Two Lance '14.

Last year the game was at Pine Ridge and this year at Red Cloud. This was Red Cloud's first home game against Pine Ridge in over 20 years. Keeping the games on the reservation depends on the behavior of the fans and players. “I really like the games being down here,” declared senior Terra Garnier. “It is pressuring us to keep a good attitude and play our hardest.”

The crowd was insane, and the gym walls were rumbling with excitement. “The game's excitement met the expectation of what I thought it might be, although there were less people who attended the game then I had expected. But the loudness was still what I had imagined,” stated a loyal Crusader fan, Kirkland Ross '14.