Vikings capture first game at state
Menahga Coach Cody Pulju didn’t have to look far to see a duplicate of his own team.
Minneota, “Reminded me a lot of ourselves,” said the Braves coach.
Coach Cody Pulju simply said, “We ran into a real good team.”
Minneota held an 18-point lead in the second half, but had to hang on for a 74-69 win over the pressing, driving, small but quick Braves.
“We knew they were going to start putting pressure on us with their diamond press the second half,” said Coach Johnston.
After taking an 11-point, 41-30 lead at the half — the Vikings took control of the game, building a 53-35 lead. But they couldn’t hold it.
Menahga threw the hard diamond press on Vikings and slowly crept back into the game.
When Megan Hendrickson grabbed a rebound and put it back in, Minneota led just 64-60.
But Lizzy Gillingham, who would score 19 points, got loose, thanks to a pass from Lydia Sussner, and scored for a 66-60 lead with 2:30 to go.
But Menahga wasn’t through. Alyssa Anderson got loose for one of her four, three-pointers and Minneota’s lead was precarious at best — at 67-65 with 1:45 to go. “They definitely intensified their defense” said Coach Johnston.
Unfortunately for the Braves, they didn’t see the Lydia Sussner, Lizzy Gillingham train coming.
Gillingham scored and got a rebound, then hit one of two free throws. Sussner hit a free throw. Menagha’s second player fouled out — Megan and Tara Hendrickson and the Vikings held on for the first-round win at the state tournament.
Sussner scored 22 points with nine rebounds, collecting 14 of those points in the second half.
“We play against several big girls up north, but we’re not used to defending a girl like Sussner,” said Brave Coach Palju. “We don’t see big girls with the skills she has — with the height, athletic ability and skill,” he said.
“In fact, all four of their guards were hard to hold. He was right, Gillingham scored 19, Morgan Hennen 18 and Abby Hennen six.
“I knew they had two girls crashing down on us. But we knew we could do it. We had to step it up and help each other,” said Sussner.
IN THE first half it was Morgan Hennen who gave the Vikings a jump start. she hit two quick shots, “Then the third one some how went through,” Hennen laughed. It was a three-pointer and she had 12 first half points. She would hit two three-pointers in the second half.
Minneota got off to a 16-8 lead in the first half and Menahga got further behind.
“This was our first state tournament and half our girls have never even been in this building,” said Brave Coach Pulju.
“We were kinda nervous,” said the Braves high-point scorer Alyssa Peterson. She scored 24 points.
“We let the environment get to us a little,” said the Brave’s coach.
He said the Braves had to go to the press because Minneota was, “Killing us in the half court.”
NET NOTES:
•The Vikings will play the state’s No. 1-ranked Lyle/Pacelli Athletics at noon on Friday at Target Center. The 30-1 squad took a 59-43 win over Heritage Christian. Their 6-5 center Kristi Fett, who scored 25 points with 18 rebounds, will be the subject of Minneota Coach Chad Johnston’s game plan.
“”We’ll have to figure that out,” he said. The coach indicated shutting off Lyle-Pacelli’s good-shooting guards or closely guarding Fett will be a tough decision.
•Minneota got good performances off the bench from Abby Rost, who scored four points and had a pair of rebounds and Natalee Rolbiecki had seven rebounds, five of them on defense.
•Both teams had 37 rebounds.
MINNEOTA (2's, 3's, FT F, TP) Lizzy Gillingham 7 0 5-7 1 19; Morgan Hennen 4 3 1-1 3 18; Lydia Sussner 8 0 6-8 1 22; Morgan Kockelman 0 1 0-0 4 3; Abby Hennen 0 0 6-9 4 6; Natalee Rolbiecki 1 0 0-01 2; Abby Rost 2 0 0-0 1 4. Totals 22 4 18-25 15 74.
MENAHGA (2's, 3's, FT, F TP) Megan Hendrickson 8 0 3-6 5 19; Leah Schwartz 4 0 0-0 2 8; Alyssa Peterson 3 4 6-7 2 24; Tara Hendrickson 1 0 0-0 5 2; Cierra Ahlf 5 1 1-24 14; Martha Peterson 0 0 0-0 0 0; Annie Lake 0 0 2-2 1 2. Totals 21 5 12-17 19 69.
Score by Halves
Menahga 30 39 — 69
Minneota 41 33 — 74
Statistics:
SHOOTING: Minneota 26 of 53 for 49 percent. percent: Menahga 26 of 67 for 39 percent. (Three's: Minneota 4of 13 for 31 percent; Menahga 5 of 21 for 24 percent.
FREE THROWS: Minneota 18 of 25 for 72 percent; Menahga 12 of 17 for 71 percent.
REBOUNDS: Minneota 37 (Sussner 9 Rolboecki 7, Gillingham 6, Abby hennen 5, Morgan Kockelman 3, Morgan Hennen 2); Menahga 37 (Megan Hendrickson 8; Schwartz, Peterson 6 each; Tara hendrickson, Ahlf 5 each; Lake 4).
TURNOVERS: Minneota 15; Menahga 9.
STEALS: Minneota 4, (Sussner 3, Morgan Hennen 1); Menahga 7 (Megan Hendrickson, Peterson, Ahlf 2 each; Schwartz 1).
ASSISTS: Minneota 16 (Sussner 7; Abby Hennen 6; Morgan Hennen, Kockelman, Rolbiecki 1 each); Menahga 11 (Peterson 6; Schwartz 3; Tara hendrickson, Ahlf 1 each).
BLOCKS: Minneota 3 (Sussner, Kockelman, Abby Hennen 1 each); Menahga 2 (Megan hendrickson, Ahlf 1 each).