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HUMPHREY - The Randolph girls ended the season in the D2-3 Subdistrict held at Archangels Catholic on Feb. 17 after not taking advantage of the Lady Cardinals’ second highest scoring total of the entire season.
Winside defeated the Lady Redbirds in a play-in game at the Subdistrict to advance to the semifinals on Feb. 17 with a 55-27 win.
The final score was the second highest points scored in a game this season since the Lady Cardinals scored 33, their highest total of the season back in the second game of the 2024-25 campaign back on Dec. 6 in a home game with Chambers/Wheeler Central.
Unfortunately, the Lady Wildcats put up 55 points to move on and earlier in the week, the Lady Cards were defeated 65-21 by Stuart in a game played at Stuart after dropping a 58-18 contest with Elgin Public/ Pope John in a game played at home on Feb. 13.
Although the season is over, the Lady Cardinals have persevered through a season that many would have never endured.
Take into account, the Lady Cards have spent the past couple of years in a co-op that was wiped out coming into this season.
Take into account Randolph had not one senior on this year’s team and included four freshmen, four sophomores and and a couple of juniors and one might realize why they didn’t quite get over the hump to win a game.
The past week was no exception. Winside jumped ahead in the D2-3 SubDistrict 12-4 after the first quarter then added 19 points to the lead by the time of the halftime huddle.
The Lady Cards nibbled into the deficit with 14 points in the third frame, but the Lady Wildcats held on in the fourth and sidelined Randolph for the season.
In the last regular season game of the season on Valentine’s Day, the Lady Redbirds put up 21 points, but the Lady Broncos out scored the Lady Cards in the first quarter, 23-4 and really never looked back, adding another 23 points in the second period to head to the intermission with a commanding, 46-9 lead.
Stuart added 11 points to the advantage over the third frame before the Lady Cards responded to take the final eight minutes, 10-6.
Abbey Backer paced the Randolph offense with eight points on the evening.
Delayne Thelen added seven; Lilly Kuchta and Brooke Meier each added three.
The Wolfpack blanked the Lady Cardinals in the opening quarter, 23-0 and added a 10-6 second stanza to pretty much take care of the contest.
The Lady Cards did outscore EPPJ in the final period, but the Wolfpack had already put the game to rest.
Abbey Backer led the way in double figures with 10 points in the contest. Kuchta added five and Thelen tossed in three.
RAN (0-21) 4 4 14 5 - 27 WIN (7-17) 12 23 12 8 - 55 RANDOLPH: NA RAN (0-21) 4 5 2 10 - 21 STU (16-7) 23 23 13 6 - 65 RANDOLPH: Lilly Kuchta 1-7 0-0 3; Abbey Backer 3-12 1-1 8; Kynlee Winkelbauer 0-2 0-0 0; Brooke Meier 1-4 1-2 3; Delayne Thelen 3-13 0-0 7; Braylee Kelley 0-2 0-0 0.
EPPJ (18-5) 23 10 20 5 - 58 RAN (0-21) 0 6 6 6 - 18 RANDOLPH: Kuchta 2-8 1-2 5; Backer 4-11 1-2 10; Sydney Robinson 0-1 0-0 0; Winkelbauer 0-2 0-0 0; Meier 0-6 0-0 0; Thelen 1-6 1-2 3.
