Lady Cards end season with loss to defending state champs
RANDOLPH — The Randolph Lady Cardinals may have fallen short of advancing to a district final and securing a better record overall, but don’t tell them they didn’t enjoy plenty of success in a pandemic year.
Randolph finished 7-13, but what is missed in that is a fourgame win streak late in the year and wrapping up the season with a 5-4 record in the last month of play.
It all ended with a sub-district final defeat at Wynot, 53-22, but not before recording a semifinal victory, 55-46 over Santee.
In the win, Gracie Eledge led the way with 15 points while Jaiden Taylor continued her secondhalf of the season run of scoring, finishing with 14 points.
Emmalee Harder added eight points and 10 rebounds.
In the loss to Wynot, Taylor finished with a team-best eight points and four rebounds.
“Against Santee, the girls did a great job passing and moving the ball around to beat the press that we faced,” Randolph head coach Marcus Papenhausen said. “It was the best offensive performance we had all year and the most points we scored. We did a good job getting to the free throw line - converting 23 out of 37 attempts. It was great to see multiple girls get in the scoring column.”
Wynot, the defending D2 champions, did what top teams do: Held off a threat by a team that was feeling pretty good about itself.
“We came out with great fire and passion and did a great job in the first quarter defensively,” Papenhausen said. “As usual we had a hard time beating Wynot’s press. In the second quarter Wynot did a good job getting points on the break and wearing our girls down. Eventually we couldn’t get them stopped and couldn’t break down their defense to score enough points and our season came to an end.”
The season’s end gave Papenhausen a chance to reflect on the season and one positive he focused on was the team’s ability to find cohesion.
“I could see a great joy that they had playing together,” he said. “Different girls improved on things that I had asked them to and they worked hard at it. Even though our record didn’t show as many victories as we had hoped this year the girls competed in every game this year and I feel made it tough on most opponents.
“The biggest challenge this year for us was just being able to score the ball. We needed more girls to have confidence in their game and be able to score the ball. Another challenge/obstacle was just so many teams this year we faced were good teams. We never were able to enjoy a night and just be able to breeze through a game. The schedule that we had this year made us earn everything we had and the girls did a good job of handling that schedule.”
So, the program moves forward and Papenhausen is ready to get things moving.
“We will get back to work here and figure out what we have for our team next year,” he said. “We lose six great seniors off this team and will have a new starting five next year. So, once we start our offseason work, we will find out who wants to fill those spots. Hopefully, this summer will be back to a little more normal and we will be able to travel to some camps and get a little more time in open gyms.
“The girls will really have to push themselves and each other if we want next year to be successful. We may only have nine or 10 girls out next year so hopefully we can get some girls that haven’t been out to come out and help the team.”
Papenhausen acknowledges the seniors will be sorely missed. “All
“All six of them gave me a lot of minutes in my two years as head coach,” he said. “They were a very hardworking group and liked being pushed. Their attitude was always great and were such an easy group to coach. We are going to miss them in the Randolph program, and we thank them for all that they did to help us over the years.”
Taylor was pleased with how she and her teammates represented themselves to end the year.
“Altogether we knew we were going against a really competitive team (Wynot), so we knew what we were getting into,” she said. “I thought we played our best defense ever. Yes, their press is phenomenal, and we struggled with that. Offensive-wise, we ran the plays and looked for open opportunities to hit our posts and our cutters. Wynot is just so good that they read everything. I love their press, just not when it’s against me.”
Taylor noted the team’s improvement came when the players realized it took a team to do greater things.
“More of us were making more points for us and realized it can’t just be two people scoring the points and more people stepped up. That’s when we got better,” Taylor said. “The mood was 100 percent better and it was like, ‘who was that team in December?’ No one was down from losing. Our attitude was phenomenal. No one was cranky with each other.
“We knew what we were capable of and we knew we just hadn’t gotten there yet.”
Taylor said the girls recognized what each one meant to each other more off the court than what they did for the team in terms of basketball statistics and thus kept the team solid even during the tougher times.
For Taylor, who admittedly was not happy with her own personal first half of the season, she leaves the Lady Cardinals having gotten to pass her 500th point milestone and feel better about her contributions.
“It’s not all about the points, but I am glad I got over 500, but I wished I would have pushed myself harder before I became a senior,” Taylor said. “I am pretty happy with how I left it. If I could go back and change one thing though, it would be to push harder when I was younger.”
Santee 5 14 12 15-46
Randolph 10 17 13 15-55
Randolph Santee
FG 13-25
3PT 2-9
FT 23-37
Reb 36
TOs 24
SCORING Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 15; Jayden Taylor, 13; Natalie Munter, 9; Emmalee Harder, 8; Ariel Fye, 6; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Grace Nordhues, 2.
REBOUNDS
Randolph - Emmalee Harter, 10; Natalie Munter,9; Gracie Eledge,5; Grace Nordhues, 4; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Ariel Fye, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Jayden Taylor,1.
ASSISTS
Randolph - Emmalee Harter, 5; Jenne Albers, 1; Gracie Eledge,1; Jayden Taylor,1; Grace Nordhues, 1.
STEALS Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, Ariel Fye,
Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, 5; Ariel Fye, 4; Gracie Eledge,2; Emmalee Harter, 2; Keely Pinkelman, 1.
Wynot 12 20 15 6— 53
Randolph 6 4 6 6-22
Wynot Randolph FG
FG 21 10-29 3PT
3PT 3 0-8
FT 8-15 2-5
Reb 31 20
TOs 13 28
SCORING Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, 8; Gracie Eledge, 2; Natalie Munter, 2; Emmalee Harder, 2; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Ariel Fye, 2; Grace Nordhues, 2. Wynot-Kerley Heimes, 13; Edyn Sudbeck, 9; Emersyn Sudbeck, 7; Amy Tramp, 4, Kayla Pinkelman, 4; Krystal Sudbeck, 4; Kinslee Heimes, 3; Amber Lawson, 2; Autumn Lawson, 2; Allison Wieseler, 2; Kendra Pinkelman, 2; Autumn Lawson, 2; Lauren Haberman, 1.
REBOUNDS Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, 4; Gracie Eledge, 3; Jenne Albers, 3; Emmalee Harder, 3; Natalie Munter, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Keely Pinkelman, 1; Ariel Fye,1; Grace Nordhues, 1.
ASSISTS Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, 1; J. Backer, 1; Keely Pinkelman, 1; Grace Nordhues, 1.
STEALS Randolph - Jaydon Taylor, 3; Gracie Eledge, 1; Emmalee Harder, 1; Grace Nordhues, 1.
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