Weston High School fell to Florien High 70-57 on Monday in the regional round of the LHSAA “Marsh Madness” girls basketball postseason tournament bringing an end to their 2024-25 season. With the loss, the Lady Wolves finish the basketball season with a 21-11 record while Florien continues to the quarterfinals with a 20-16 mark where they will face top ranked Fairview on Thursday, February 27th.

With homestanding Weston being seeded #8 and visiting Florien coming in at #9, and separated in the Class B power rankings by only one tenth of a point, the regional round playoff contest was expected to be a close one.

For three quarters the prognostication held true.

For the first three quarters both teams battled tooth and nail with Weston staying in front by a slim margin the nearly the whole time. Only twice during the contest did Florien take a lead, both times gaining a three point advantage, the first at 8-5  early the first quarter and once again at 42-39 late in the third period. Both times the Lady Wolves rallied to hold a slim advantage heading into the next quarter. 

Then came a Florien flurry of points in the final frame.

Opening the fourth quarter with a pair of three pointers and a basket, Florien took their largest lead of the game at 50-46. A three-pointer by Anslee Aldy narrowed the gap to one but four more baskets by  the Black Cats opened up a 61-53 bulge. In an attempt to whittle the lead down with time running out, WHS head coach Stacy Tucker had his team foul Florien but instead of Weston getting closer the Black Cats made their charity shots that led to a 28 flurry of fourth quarter points leading to the eventual 70-53 final score. 

The loss overshadowed several outstanding efforts by the Lady Wolves, including a “double-double” performance of 19 points and 10 rebounds by Briley Peterson and a team high 11 rebounds by senior, Nadia Siadek, who also scored four points in what turned out to be her final prep game. Carly Jo Griffin and Anslee Aldy also had good games with each reaching double figures in scoring, ending with 13 and 10 points respectively. Jakayla Fourd finished with five rebounds to go along with her two points while Rachel Bandy chipped in with four points.