Photo by Jake Przytarski Wabasso’s Jenna Frank brings the ball upcourt during their game against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Saturday. The Rabbits defeated the Mustangs 65-31.

WABASSO – The Wabasso girls basketball team picked up its second win of the season on Saturday over Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart thanks to a lightning fast start and continuous defensive pressure en route to a 65-31 drubbing over the Mustangs.

Wabasso coach Neil Dolan pointed to the fast-break points generated via the full-court press that put them ahead 11-0 to begin the game as a critical component to their success.

“It’s very important for us,” said Dolan. “We’re kind of a team that transitions well and likes to play with pressure, and that’s what they did early on they got us a good jump into that game. I think that was real important.”

Sitting comfortably with a 11-0 lead in the opening minutes of the half, the Rabbits did not let up on either side of the floor – continuing to turn turnovers into points with Sarah Franta taking a steal the other way for an easy layup to push the lead to 26-4 midway through the half.

Dominating down-low in creating second-chance points, Jenna Frank made her presence felt drawing a foul on the ensuing offensive possession and knocking down both free throws before coming back down the floor and draining a three to push the lead to 31-4 to conclude the Rabbits 19-0 run.

The Mustangs picked things up offensively following the lopsided start to the half, outscoring the Rabbits 14-12 before the buzzer to end the half, but the Rabbits still remained in control of the game with a 43-20 lead. Dolan attributed the late-half momentum shift to the team easing up the pressure on the press that led to the BLHS getting easy baskets.

“If we get out of that sometimes we kind of lose sight of what (we’ve been doing), (it) happened towards the end of that first half,”said Dolan. “We lost our focus because we couldn’t keep applying that pressure.”

Returning to form in the second half, the Rabbits picked up an early boost from Maddy Guetter, who picked up three points the hard way to push the team to a 46-22 lead. Following suit, Frank added another 3-point play moments later to make it 51-22 with the momentum completely in favor of the Rabbits.

Nearing the end of the game holding a 60-29 lead, Franta struck again on a steal and score to make it 62-29 followed by another 3-point play from Frank to bring the Rabbits to their final game total of 65 points.

With the victory, the Rabbits move to 2-1 on the season and will to carry over the momentum built from Saturday’s performance into their Tuesday night home matchup with Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s at 6 p.m.

Looking ahead, Dolan is hoping for a more consistent level of intensity and focus from his team even if the game is beginning to get out of reach for the opponent as it did in the first half on Saturday.

“We got a big one Tuesday night against St. Mary’s,” said Dolan. “It’s probably two of the better teams in the conference, and we’re going to have to clean things up. We’re going to have to shoot a little bit better and tighten up defensively and then we’ll be fine, because you get a little bit loose when you get a big lead and we gotta make sure that we maintain our focus.”