VOLGA – Castlewood defeated Sioux Valley 65-55 in a Lake Central Conference girls’ basketball game Tuesday night.

“We played very hard in spurts; I liked our energy and effort in the fourth quarter and to start the game,” said Cossack temporary head coach Jordan Fast. “But you have to win all the quarters and we kind of had a dry spell in the third quarter. We just couldn’t catch up from the hole we dug ourselves, but we fought hard to come back.”

The Warriors led 16-15 after a quarter, before closing the second stanza with a 6-0 spurt to move ahead 34-26 at halftime. They were up 51-39 through three and led by as many as 17 points in the final frame.

However, the Cossacks rallied back and twice pulled within six points – 58-52 on a Lynsey Stevens 3-pointer with 2:01 remaining and at 61-55 on another Stevens trey with 45 seconds left – down the stretch.

However, that would be as close as Sioux Valley would get.

Castlewood’s Regan Benike scored a game-high 25 points while adding eight rebounds and six assists. She went 9-of-10 at the foul line.

Abbey Strait added 15 points and Tara McEldowney 10. Brooke Bruinsma came up with 11 boards.

Stevens paced the Cossacks with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting and grabbed six rebounds.

“She’s had a really solid season,” Fast said of the junior. “She’s one of those people that can put in 25 for us; she’s always consistent. She’s one of our leaders offensively and she had a tough job guarding Benike all night, so she did it on both ends.”

Carly Granum, who hit three 3s, added 14 points. Miakken Vincent canned a pair of long balls and finished with 12 points.

Cassie Rawden dished out 10 assists.

Both teams wrap up the regular season Thursday with Sioux Valley (6-13, 1-5) playing host to Garretson and Castlewood (12-5, 4-2) traveling to Estelline.