Lady Raiders start the season with a 1-2 record

The Rice Lady Raiders basketball season has officially tipped off as they have begun tournament play.

The Lady Raiders took on the Luling Eagles, the Brazos Cougarettes and the Lamar Consolidated Mustangs to start the season, so let’s jump in and see what happened.

Vs. Luling, W, 33-30

The Lady Raiders got their season started on the right foot as they picked up a much-needed win to start the season. This is significant because the Lady Raiders have now matched their win total from last season, and it only took them one game to do it.

This is a team that is looking to stack up some wins this season and coming out and picking up a gutsy win is going to do wonders for their confidence moving forward.

Sure, they won the game by only three points, so they did not “dominate” the game, but good teams find a way to win these close games. It’s something the Lady Raiders will have to do this season too if they want to keep winning games because they are in a very tough district with some quality teams.

So, getting out a win even though it is only by three points is still a win, and the Lady Raiders deserve credit for not giving up and finishing the game to secure the win.

@ Wallis Brazos, L, 29-23

In their second game of the season, the Lady Raiders fell to the Cougarettes with a score of 29-23. It was a very close game as evidenced by the score as the Cougarettes won by only six points.

But the other part of that is how low the score is. This game was a defensive battle as neither team wanted to give the other time and space. Both teams were held to under 30 points, which is impressive at this level of basketball.

The players are so talented at the varsity level so to be able to hold both teams under 30 points is a huge accomplishment. Now the Lady Raiders know that their offense is better than scoring 23 points, but they did not hit the panic button they just took the loss in stride and looked towards their next game.

@ Lamar Consolidated, L, 51-16 Alright, so let’s get it out of the way right now; the Lady Raiders only scored 16 points. Let’s all look at it, accept it, and let’s move on now.

They played a 5A school and got smoked. It happens to even the best of teams, and this is more for the Lady Raiders to plat some stiffer competition to try and get better.

The good news is this game is behind them now and they got a lot of good game film out of it because while they scored 16 points, they gave up 51. So, on both sides of the ball, they have some really good game film that Head Coach Reagan Beal can use to teach his team with a visual aid.

The loss still stings regardless, but the Lady Raiders have put an emphasis on positivity and how they respond to this loss will show if that message is being received or not.

The Lady Raiders will be back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 5 p.m. when they travel to take on the Louise Hornets looking to jump back into the win column.