Lady Tanagers cope with a busy basketball schedule

With foul weather causing a pileup of rescheduled games, the Lady Tanagers were playing their third game in four nights and their fourth contest in seven days at Canton Friday night and deserved to have some good fortune.

They got it with a satisfying 52-43 win over the C-Hawks, their second victory of the season.

"We have been waiting for one of these breakout games for our shooting," said Coach Nick Mayer, whose team put three women into double figures.  Lexi Regnerus scored 13 points, Claire Jones 11 and Sierra Allen 10.

Jaicee Ulmer led Canton's offense with 18 points.

The Tanager women nearly had another win three days earlier at Hartford, but West Central escaped on its home court with a 50-46 overtime win over Vermillion.

Jones made a huge contribution off the bench, leading the team in scoring with 14 while Allen contributed 10.  Mayer credited Kayla Munger and Morgan Erickson for teaming up to defend West Central's main cog, Lexy Hofer.  Hofer nevertheless led her team in scoring with 19 while Kami Peters added 11.

Some momentum from last week's two games carried over into Tuesday's home contest with District 8 rival Beresford, but unfortunately it lasted for only one quarter.

The Tanagers started beautifully and led 9-2 and 11-4, but an 8-0 Watchdog run brought them back to dead even.  Then in a forgettable second period Beresford outscored Vermillion 15-0 as a slew of Tanager turnovers led to easy Watchdog points.

Although Vermillion returned at one point to within nine in the second half, the outcome was never in doubt, and Beresford improved its record to 11-4 with a 45-32 win.

Lexi Regnerus off the bench led VHS scoring with 10 points.  The Tanagers were outrebounded by only 30-27 but missed 10 of 17 free throws and committed 18 turnovers to Beresford's nine.

Mayer's girls suddenly have only two weeks of regular-season play left, starting with a Monday night home rematch against West Central and a Tuesday night date at Dakota Valley along with the boys' team.