CLASS A GIRLS BASKETBALL: Minneota ready to make a run at state with quarterfinal against Menahga today
Trending
MINNEOTA - The Minneota girls basketball team is returning to the Class A Tournament today after missing the cut the last couple of seasons. The Vikings make their seventh appearance in the tournament, with the last one coming in 2015, and have earned the No. 4 seed.
Their opponent, the No. 5 seed Menahga Braves, have taken a different approach to the tournament. This is the first state tournament trip for the Braves, who enter with a perfect 30-0 record.
Menahga comes into the tournament with a scoring average of nearly 70 points per game and are led by Alyssa Peterson, Megan Hendrickson and Cierra Ahlf.
Minneota coach Chad Johnston said Menahga's offensive style is a lot of dribble drives to the basket or drives in the lane to kick out to the perimeter, so their main focus is to not give up wide open looks.
"Offensively they run a no-post system, a lot of five out and dribble penetration," Johnston said. "They've got a couple of girls that like to kick out for 3-pointers, but they're very aggressive going to the basket. Our key is trying to stop dribble penetration and not give up easy looks to the basket."
Johnston said the Braves like to play in a man-to-man defensive setup but could go to a zone and try and contain Lydia Sussner down in the post.
"They're going to come after us and try and pressure the ball. We've seen them play man-to-man, some diamond press, but it seems like the man-to-man will be a little more of the go to. We've got to handle the pressure, that'll be the key for us," Johnston said. "They've got tape of us playing Southwest Minnesota Christian when Lydia went off for 34 so whether or not they think they have to go to zone to try and contain her or they can do that out of their man will be yet to be seen. What we saw on tape was good man-to-man in your face pressure, so we've been working on that."
The Vikings are led by a mix of perimeter and post players, including Sussner, Lizzy Gillingham, Abby Hennen and Morgan Kockelman. Offensively, Minneota averages roughly 67 points per game and have won its last eight games by an average of 18 points. Johnston said they've been focusing primarily on handling the defensive pressure of Menahga and will pay attention to what setup the Braves take to the court.
"We're just trying to do our normal things. I think we need to handle their pressure, that's number one. We get in our half-court offense we have to try and recognize what they're going to do. I think they'll struggle one-on-one with Lydia in the paint. They don't have any super height and BBE's post players were able to do some good things against them," Johnston said. "We need to recognize what they're doing; If they go to a zone to try and contain Lydia then we do our normal thing against the zone, but if they're trying to double team against Lydia which we’ve seen throughout the year, we've got to find the open player and they've got to make a good cut to the basket. For us, it's really just right now trying to figure out what they're going to try and do scheme-wise, and then we've got to have an answer for it."
Defensively, Johnston said they've been focusing on containing dribble penetration and being able to help around the perimeter.
"We've really worked hard on the dribble penetration and helping out. We've tried to do some different things in the last few games; Lac qui Parle Valley we didn't help out on anybody. We knew that they wanted to dribble drive, but we also knew they wanted to kick out for 3-pointers so we worked hard on dribble penetration but having to do that one-on-one with no help," Johnston said. "We're doing our normal principles this time and we're trying to help out on normal dribble penetration and force some of those girls on the outside to hit some shots."
The Vikings also enter as one of the younger teams in the tournament. Menahga is similar to Minneota's roster, with the Braves having just one senior, four juniors and the rest sophomores and below. Johnston said the matchups will be similar, but as long as they maintain that high level of confidence, they'll be fine.
"Girls basketball is unique because you see a lot of teams with a lot of young players. They have a bench full of a lot of young kids but they're similar to us and play only about seven or eight kids. They're relying on their core group to do a lot of things just like we do," Johnston said. "We just tell our kids to go in and be confident, it's a tough time of the year because you're playing good teams and have to play games in a row but we're confident with what we've been able to do all year long and stick with that."
While many of the Vikings' players have never experienced the state tournament on the basketball court, some of them have gotten to play on the big stage in volleyball, most recently a runner-up finish at last fall's tournament. Johnston believes this experience will prove to be an asset heading into their games.
"I think that's huge as far as their experience. Obviously I've been fortuante to do this a few times but I don't play the game so my experience is knowing how to handle the situations and handle the games and prep," Johnston said. "For the girls, I think that experience in volleyball this year is really going to be a huge asset for them and for Menahga this is its first trip ever to the state tournament. We've been there before and were that team back in 2005, but the fact that this is a new group; I think Lydia was the only one on the roster a few years ago, so this is new, but having that experience in volleyball will carry over. I think they'll be well determined and focused and I think it'll be a huge asset and they'll know what to expect."
Minneota takes on Menahga today at 1 p.m. at Williams Arena. Johnston said they're looking forward to competing hard and hopefully putting together three quality performances to end the season.
"We're looking forward to obviously going up and just doing good things. There's some very good teams up there and ones that have consistently been up there. Anything can happen up there; you've got to put together three good ballgames and can't afford to have a down game," Johnston said. "The nice thing about is you're not one-and-done anymore. We've been there before where the first game of the state tournament was the bad one and you're going home, but now you've got an opportunity to recover from that. We're going up with high expectations and not just happy to be there, we're going up with the intent of doing good things and if we're playing good ball we can play with anybody."