In tragedy, Raiders look to basketball to find comfort

With the Younkin tragedy still very much on their minds and the kids still stunned and in shock, they boarded the bus for the two-hour ride to Scobey for the second day of the 2009 Tip-Off Tournament. They’d had a meeting and decided they would rather all be together this day to be close and comfort one another than to be home alone suffering this terrible loss.

As is my custom, the first thing I do when I cover a tournament is to find the hospitality room and the free food. Scobey is known for having one of the best, and I sure wasn’t disappointed today.

Karla Rasmussen was setting up the room and offered heartfelt condolences from her Scobey friends to the Younkin family and all of Hinsdale. She said,

“The mood in the gym was very somber yesterday when we heard of the accident. We just couldn’t get it off our minds.”  Thank you for the kind words Karla, from all of us.

The boys' varsity game was in progress in the new gym and I watched the first half of their game and then went to the old gym to catch the last half of the girls' JV game where the Lady Raiders were doing their level best to declaw the JV Lady Wildcats of Circle.

Hinsdale was up by about 5 late in the third quarter, on good play in the paint by Hannah Jones and Chateau Christensen. Sam Ryan, Lacey Mogan, Chrystal Mavencamp and Bailey Remmich were all helping out and the team was doing well, making good passes, setting screens and playing good defense.

With about a minute and a half of the fourth quarter, the Hinsdale squad had a temporary lapse of good judgment and let the Circle girls catch up and actually go ahead by 1 point on a stolen inbound pass.  Hinsdale almost lost the ball again, but Chateau hustled and tied up the Circle player and the possession arrow favored the Lady Raiders.

Hinsdale missed a couple shots and Circle regained possession, taking the ball downcourt where a Circle player made the mistake of trying to shoot one over Hannah. Miss Jones executed a very nice BWA, knocking the ball into next week.

Circle got the ball and inbounded, but Chateau stole it and headed downcourt. A circle player got in her way, and after everyone picked themselves up off the floor, the umperee decided it was the Circle girl's  fault and charged her accordingly. This brought a strident outburst from the Circle coach, which the ref took umbrage with and called a technical with just four seconds left in the game - and the score Circle 23, Hinsdale 22.

Chateau took aim, lined up the shot and let fly with the perfect free throw. The ball arced towards the bucket, hit the rim, bounced up and then said, “Uh, Uh, I ain’t going in there.” And it didn’t.

This put Sam Ryan on the line to shoot the two technical freebies. Sam never misses a free throw. But the planets were just not lined up right this day for the Lady Raiders and both shots went awry. Scobey wins it 23 to 22. But this was the best game the Raiders would have all day.  The girls played well and had opportunity to win. I’ll wager they get it done next time they’re in that situation.

I went back out to see the last quarter of the boys' game against Circle.  They were in a predicament, trailing 50-25, but with some late game hustle and a couple good plays from Lane Capdeville, Kirk Capdeville, Justin Pattison, Greg Lacock and Tate Ryan the Raiders closed the gap, outscored the Wildcats in the fourth quarter 9-2, and the final score was Circle 52, Hinsdale 34.

The girls' varsity was a really good game with Claire Fjeld, Trisha Remmich, Kendra Canen, Megan Funk and Mandy Beil getting the nod to start from coach Ralph Ellsworth. Tori Arnold got some quality playing time in the game as well and gathered in some great rebounds as well as picking a couple pockets.

Megan was the team high scorer with 9 points while Claire tallied 8 pernts and a couple nice blocks. Trisha got a couple blocks, grabbed some rebounds and otherwise made her presence known in the key.

Mandy gave the Lady Raiders the lead, 11-10, early in the second quarter off a free throw. But the quarter ended with a Fritz/Van Horn blitzkrieg setting the tally at Circle 16, Hinsdale 11.

Kendra grabbed an offensive rebound and went right back up with it for the bucket, getting the Raiders within 3 pernts of the lead but with three straight turn-overs by the Hinsdale team and Circle capitalizing on each one the score to end the third quarter was Circle 24, Hinsdale 16.  Megan nailed a 3-pointer in that stanza and slammed down a BWA herownself.

She started the Lady Raiders off on the right footing the final period by hitting a nice 12-foot jumper from 14 feet off a great no-look pass from Trisha. On Hinsdale’s very next possession, after shutting down the Lady Wildcats, Claire grabbed an offensive rebound and turned it into 2 pernts. Then, not to be outdone, Mandy popped for a 10-foot jumper and with 52 ticks left, Kendra drove base line and rattled in a 12-footer, bringing the Lady Raiders back from the abyss to make it a 6-point game, Hinsdale 24, Circle 30.

Tori gobbled up an offensive rebound and put it up and in for 2 and the Circle lead was cut to 4 with 19.3 ticks left on the ticker. Circle added a free throw.
There was a frenzied flurry of fiercely-fighting females scrambling for a loose ball with Hinsdale coming up with it, but there just wasn’t enough time left to mount an attack and the buzzer buzzed to end an excellent game. Circle Lady Wildcats 31, Hinsdale Lady Raiders 26. And thus ended the 2009 Scobey Tip-Off Tourney for the kids from Hinsdale. Under the circumstances, they, one and all, played well and fought hard.

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for listening.