The Waconda Lakers a girls basketball team made up of players from area towns competed in the Riley Mid America Youth Basketball Tournament on July 26-27. They beat Valley Heights in game one 50 to 25 with the offense being led by Brenna Eilert's 10 points and Courtney Freed's 9. Despite getting off to an excellent start against Topeka Seaman in game 2 the Lakers lost 24 to 27. Remi Behrends led the offense with 8 points and Brenna Eilert finished with 5. The final game of pool play was against a team of players from several schools including Hanover, Washington, and Pike Valley. The Lakers had three players in double figures led by Brenna Eilert with 12, Jessica Princ and Jordan Eshbaugh each with 11 points in the 57 to 33 victory.
The Lakers got the second seed Sunday for bracket play and faced Valley Heights again in the semi-finals. The Lakers were ready to play in the 8 a.m. contest and got off to a 24-0 lead and went on to win 62 to 15. Four players reached double figures led by Jordan Eshbaugh's 14, Remi Behrends with 12, and Jessica Princ and Drew Mann each had 10 points. The championship game was a rematch with Topeka Seaman who beat the Lakers in the championship game of the Sunflower Games in Topeka last weekend. Once again the Lakers struggled to score against the size of Topeka but a late surge led by Regan Casey tied the game at 31 at the end of regulation. The first overtime ended up tied at 33 with the Lakers losing the top defensive player Erin Alexander who did a great job throughout the game shuting down the 6'2 wing player from Topeka. The second overtime also ended tied at 37 and the Lakers lost team leader and point guard Courtney Freed to fouls. Topeka made a free throw with 10 seconds left in the third overtime to go ahead 41 to 40, but Jordan Eshbaugh put back and miss with two seconds left to give the Lakers the win. Jessica Princ was the top scorer with 12 points and Erin Alexander had 8.
The Lakers finished the summer season winning 12 of 15 games and two second place finishes (Great Bend, Topeka), along with winning the Riley tournament. The young ladies put in a lot ot time and effort into improving themselves individually and played extremely well as a team!