VOLGA – The Sioux Valley girls’ basketball team lost to Garretson 56-49 in their final regular season game Thursday night.

The Cossacks trailed early as they fell behind by double-digits in the second quarter. They would fight back though and cut the Blue Dragons lead to 26-21 at halftime. Sioux Valley used that momentum to cut the lead to two points heading into the fourth quarter.

Sioux Valley tied the game with a and-one by Miakken Vincent with 3:10 left in the game. Garretson would answer with an 8-0 run and the Cossacks were unable to come back. Sioux Valley finished the season with an overall record of 9-11.

“Offensively all year long it’s been our ability to pass and were open a lot of times, it’s just finding the right girl at the right time and delivering a ball to shoot. You know, our passing will come along as our skill levels increase. Extremely pleased with how our girls competed tonight,” Sioux Valley head coach Jamie Granum said.

It was senior night for Sioux Valley and their leading scorer Miakken Vincent. She scored 16 points and had five rebounds and five assists in her final game in Volga. The other senior on the team, Ellie Schmidt, had six points.

“I love [the seniors],” Granum said. “They bring it every day at practice. They’ve grown as girls into young women and their just a joy to be around. Really going to miss them next year and just wish them the best.”

Reagan Johnson led the Cossacks with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists. Abbie Schnieder had eight points, six assists and five rebounds.

Lizzie Olson led the Blue Dragons (7-11) with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Lily Ranschau had 11 points and Lauren Heesch had 10.

The Cossacks shot 33.9% from the field and were 5-20 from three. Garretson shot 36.4% from the field and were 6-18 from three. They outrebounded Sioux Valley 42-25.

“We’re just really, really close. We’re close as a basketball team. A lot of times we play teams like [Garretson] and we just don’t have the athletes to put on the floor that opposing teams do. But thing about it is, we compete. We just compete and I told them in the locker room how proud I was to coach them and their competitiveness was really high tonight.

Up next, the Cossacks will play in the regional playoffs. Granum said if Sioux Valley wants to keep their season alive they’re going to have to just focus on themselves and not worry about who they have to play.

“What we’ve done the last three weeks is just take a lot of this stuff, whether it’s offensive sets or actions and stuff. We just have to get better. We have to be able to pass the ball better and we have to be able to use our left hands. Back to the fundamentals, and we just have to be better and then we’ll get better. When that time happens were going to start to get wins,” Granum said.

GARRETSON 56, SIOUX VALLEY 49

Garretson (7-11)

Lizzie Olson 8-17 3-5 19, Lily Ranschau 3-13 3-6 11, Lauren Heesch 3-7 2-2 10, Mya Long 2-6 0-0 6, Rachel Kindt 1-1 2-2 4, Jaelyn Benson 2-6 0-1 4, Peyton Hove 1-2 0-0 2, Aftyn Heitkamp 0-1 0-0 0, Logan Bly 0-2 0-0 0, Mattea Fiegen 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-55 6-18 56.

Sioux Valley (9-11)

Reagan Johnson 7-17 2-4 16, Miakken Vincent 6-16 1-1 14, Abbie Schneider 2-10 2-2 8, Ellie Schmidt 2-7 1-1 6, Ashley Bjerke 1-4 0-0 3, Julia Schneider 1-2 0-0 2, Isabelle Bloker 0-0 0-0 0, Jada Knutson 0-0 0-0 0, Laryn Stevens 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-56 6-11 49.

Garretson     9 17 10 20 – 56

Sioux Valley 6 15 13 15 – 49

3-point field goals – G 6-18 (Heesch 2-4, Long 2-5, Ranschau 2-5, Heitkamp 0-1), SV 5-20 (Schmidt 1-1, Bjerke 1-4, Schneider 2-7, Vincent 1-8). Rebounds – G 42, SV 25. Assists – G 18, SV 19. Steals – G 13, SV 21. Blocks – G 0, SV 1. Turnovers – G 21, SV 17. Total fouls – G12, SV 21. Technical fouls – none.