There is a very old tradition in athletics that tournament time is a "second season", with renewed hope for every team and every team starting out with a 0-0 record. Teams that have experienced disappointing regular seasons hope to pull off an upset or two and continue on, while teams with better seasons look to make a strong run into the tournament.

Last night's opening round regional contest for the ACGC girls' basketball team started out looking like the 2-19 Chargers might have some success in its second season against 10-11 AHSTW on the Lady Vikes home floor. With Jadeyn Carrick scoring three times, Sierra O'Brien once, and Mady Smith hitting a three pointer, the Chargers opened the the game with an 11-10 lead after the first quarter and offered some hope for the second season. With under three minutes remaining in the second quarter, the game remained nip and tuck with the Lady Vikes holding a slim 17-16 lead.

Things started going south for the Chargers after that, as AHSTW went on an 11-3 run to close out the half and ACGC found itself trailing trailing 28-19 at the intermission. Over half of the Lady Vikes' first half points were made on five long balls, including one just before halftime that seemed like a dagger thrust into the Chargers' confidence.

The Chargers were still in in the game at that point, but after scoring five field goals in the first quarter ACGC connected on only six additional field goals for the rest of the game--two in each of the final three quarters. AHSTW broke open the game in the third stanza with a 22 point quarter to take a 50-31 lead and put the game out of reach for the Chargers. The fourth quarter was just a matter of what the final score would be. The second season ended after one game.

Carrick led the Charger scoring with 11, followed by O'Brien's 9 points. Olivia Laabs led the team in rebounds with 7 and also had three assists. Kylie Young led in steals with 3. The Chargers were 11 of 35 from the field for 31% and 15 of 23 from the free throw line for 65%. AHSTW shot very well as it hit on 22 of 43 field goal attempts for 51% and 13 of 16 from the charity stripe for 81%.

Charger mentor Aaron Dose was his usual upbeat self following the game. "I was excited to see the girls play well early in the game," Dose said. "Our defense had lots of intensity and our offense was getting good shots. Unfortunately we gave up a couple of big runs to them and got in early foul trouble. It is sad to see the season end. We lost a lot of close games this year, and hope to have a good off season to turn those close games in our favor next year. We will miss our seniors--Mady Smith, Madison Berger, and Hailey Bates."

And so the season comes to a close for the Chargers, as they finish with a 2-20 record. AHSTW evened its record at 11-11 and advances to the regional quarterfinals to play conference rival Treynor, ranked second in class 2A.

Score by quarter

ACGC 11 8 12 9--40

AHSTW 10 18 22 15--65

Box score

FG 3Pt FT O-D AST STL TP

Fuller 1-3 0-1 0-0 1-4 1 0 2

Laabs 0-2 0-2 2-2 1-6 3 0 2

Smith 2-9 1-5 0-0 0-3 1 1 5

Embl'ton 0-2 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

JHoover 0-1 0-1 2-4 0-0 0 0 2

O'Brien 2-6 1-4 4-4 1-0 0 0 9

KeYoung 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Carrick 4-5 0-1 3-7 3-3 0 2 11

Lemke 0-0 0-0 1-2 0-0 0 0 1

Larsen 1-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 2

KyYoung 0-3 0-0 3-4 0-1 0 3 3

GHoover 1-3 1-3 0-0 0-1 0 1 3

Caltrider 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0