SECTION 3A CHAMPIONSHIP: Minneota stamps ticket to state tournament with victory over Southwest Minnesota Christian
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MARSHALL – The No. 1 South seed Minneota and the No. 1 North seed Southwest Minnesota Christian found themselves locked in a battle to determine who would extend their season another week and who would go home as the two teams met in the Section 3A Championship game on Friday at Southwest Minnesota State University. The game would go down to the final minutes, but it was the Vikings who was able to make enough plays down the stretch to hold off the Eagles and earn a spot in the Class A Tournament with a 82-74 victory.
Freshman Abby Hennen saw a lot from her team coming off the win, with a lot of teamwork that helped them stay focused for the entirety of the game.
"We knew that we had to shut down one of their players right away, she's a phenomenal player and we held her to only four points in the first half. She got a couple runs in the second half that hurt us but we built off of that," said Hennen. "We kept giving Lydia the ball and she just took that girl to work under the basket, and tonight we moved the ball really well and switching screens helped us stay in the game."
The Vikings had their eyes on the prize right from the start, and if they wanted to clinch a spot in the state tournament they couldn't leave anything left on the court. Minneota started it off with a quick 4-2 lead over the Eagles and continued to hold that with a 3-pointer from Morgan Kockelman that brought the Vikings to a 12-6 lead with 13:01 remaining on the clock. SWC found a few opportunities on their end of the court to put up points and try to close the gap on the Vikings. Minneota saw the Eagles offensive end pick up the pace, so they tried to mirror that but the Eagles found what they were looking for on offense and closed the score down to a two-point gap at 14-12 with 10:27 left in the half. Adding to the Vikings lead was Lizzy Gillingham who had back-to-back shots that extended Minneota's lead to 16-12. The Vikings were hit with a few miscommunicated passes that led to turnovers and gave the Eagles more chances on the offensive end to catch up as SWC closed the gap on the Vikings to 16-15 with 8:46 to play in the first half.
The Eagles and Minneota kept the score close as they found themselves with a one-point gap once again at 18-17. The two teams didn't stop at anything, as they kept each other on their toes and focused at every single moment and that's when the Eagles found a groove and tied up the score at 20-20. The score went back and forth until the Vikings took it upon themselves to pull ahead with a steady lead. With Minneota holding a lead, Abby Hennen was someone who was aggressive and didn't hold anything back and that led to a big 3-pointer that put the Vikings ahead 32-27 with two minutes on the clock. The Eagles got as close as a two-point gap on the Vikings before the half but Minneota's Lydia Sussner held her own on the court finishing off the first half with a 3-point play with 2.6 seconds on the clock that put the Vikings up 37-30 at halftime.
Minneota came into the second half with the determination to win and with that mindset they found themselves with a big 11-point lead just a minute into the half. Sussner continued to show her strengths under the basket and whenever she was given the ball there was no stopping her, as she put up every shot that came her way. The Vikings sat at a 46-34 lead with 14:55 left to play but that didn't slow them down by any means. Abby Hennen found a big opportunity to drive into the paint and put up a shot and with that she finished it off with a 3-point play that helped the Vikings hold a 49-38 lead. SWC would find themselves in a drought on its offensive end and that gave the Eagles the motivation to pick it up and started to be more aggressive. The Vikings defense picked up on that and fought back, but the Eagles showed strong signs of trying to close the gap as Minneota held their own and continued to lead 52-44 with 11:50 on the clock. Both teams began to look tired and a few missed connections for the Vikings that led to the Eagles closing the score to a seven-point gap at 58-51, but with the help from Gillingham who had hot hands under the baskets with rebounds, she helped keep Minneota ahead at 60-53 with 7:53 remaining in the game. Just 20 seconds went by and the score got down to a four-point gap at 60-56 but with a big breakaway from Gillingham helped the Vikings extend their lead to 62-56 with just under seven minutes to go.
SWC fought back to the Vikings and closed the gap on them many times as the clock counted down but with Minneota's strengths and dominance on the court it held the lead and never gave the Eagles a chance. With 1:01 left on the clock the score sat at 75-71, the Vikings were looking for a spark and that found its way to Sussner with the Minneota post player putting up back-to-back wide open shots to give the Vikings a 79-71 lead with 31.9 seconds left. Once the ball got into the hands of the Eagles they found the heat on the arc and put the score at 79-74 but that didn't scare the Vikings as Abby Hennen and Sussner finished off the game with free throws and led Minneota to a spot in the state tournament with a 82-74 win over the Eagles.
Sussner led the Vikings finishing the night with 34 points and was followed by Abby Hennen with 23 and Gillingham with 17.
Going into the state tournament coach Chad Johnston wants the team to be ready and let some of the pressure off their shoulders and go into the tournament relaxed and ready to go.
"Right now it's all about being confident in what we're doing and what we've done to get to this point. We just need to fine tune some things and play confident basketball," said Johnston. "There's a little bit of pressure in some of these games, but we're up there now. Hopefully some of that pressures comes off and we can go into the tournament relaxed."