Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota’s Ireland Stassen begins to celebrate after the final buzzer sounded that gave the Vikings a 78-50 victory over Southwest Minnesota Christian in the Section 3A championship on Friday at SMSU. The top-seeded Vikings head to the Class A tournament for the third consecutive year.

MARSHALL — The Minneota girls basketball team has had a familiar path to the state tournament the past couple of years, having faced Southwest Minnesota Christian in back-to-back section championships. The Vikings were victorious both times, fending off a late rally by the Eagles in the first matchup in 2018 before using a strong second-half push to win the second go-around a season ago.

The third installment saw another different approach, but still a similar result for the defending champions.

Minneota found its backs against the wall, but one key run changed all of that, as the top-seeded Vikings quickly erased an early deficit to take a 14-point halftime lead and ultimately a 78-50 victory against the second-seeded Eagles on Friday night at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston credited SWC for putting the pressure on his group right away and felt their ability to respond was the biggest difference maker.

“They did a nice job and are always well-coached and we kind of figured that they were going to do something different defensively; they had a lot of momentum going into this game coming off the win against Hills-Beaver Creek, so we knew that they were going to come out with a lot of intensity and they put a lot of pressure on us and got us back on our heels,” Johnston said. “We slapped a little press on them out of necessity and that kind of just changed the game, it got us a lot of looks in transition and got them back on their heels and that momentum got us going.”

This is the third consecutive trip to the Class A tournament for the Vikings. Senior Morgan Hennen said it’s a great feeling to be able to make another appearance at state and they’re ready to make another deep run.

“It feels great,” she said. “Obviously we’re looking to get back to the state championship but we want to take it one game at a time and focus every single game.”

Flipping the switch

Despite Minneota’s success in the second half, the opening minutes of the game didn’t favor the Vikings as much. After Minneota took a 4-0 advantage early, SWC answered right back with a 6-1 run to earn the lead. The Eagles were able to force Minneota into some careless turnovers over the next couple of minutes, before SWC connected on a 3-pointer to push the Eagles’ lead to 16-10 with 12:30 left in the first half.

Then, as almost as if Minneota flipped a switch, the offense instantly lit up. A 3-point play from Abby Rost drew the Vikings to within two before Morgan Hennen went on a tear, scoring three straight layups to give Minneota the lead back at 20-16 with eight minutes to go. The momentum continued to point towards Minneota, as the Vikings built a 29-16 lead a few minutes later and highlighting a 19-0 run.

Minneota’s hot play on offense was mainly sparked by its strong defensive pressure, something that Johnston said was a key necessity after SWC controlled the pace early.

“I think in the first eight minutes, they [SWC] were pretty much doing what they wanted to, they were driving to the basket, getting layups and open looks on the outside and I wasn’t very happy with our half-court defense,” Johnston said. “Out of necessity, we said ‘We need to crank it up a little bit’ and once we got some steals and some easy buckets in transition, all of a sudden our half-court defense picked up and we were playing more like we would expect this group to play. It was key; every now and then you talk about making that big run and that was the big run that we needed that just changed the momentum of the game.”

The Eagles would continue to fight, though, getting a layup and a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to single digits with two minutes to go, but once again Minneota had an answer. Kennedi Jurrens got a layup before Ireland Stassen connected on a big 3-pointer to give the Vikings a 38-24 lead heading into the locker rooms.

Experience shines through

With the momentum in their favor, the Vikings looked to keep their feet on the gas pedal to begin the second half. A layup from Morgan Hennen gave Minneota an 18-point lead with 14 minutes left before the guard got another layup to make it 50-30. From there, the Vikings’ experience showed its strength, as Minneota held onto its double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Morgan Hennen led the way for the Vikings with 24 points while Abby Hennen added 18 and Rost had 11. Abby Hennen led in rebounds with 10 while Stassen led in assists with four.

Johnston was pleased with how the veteran leaders stepped up during the game, but praised the role players for capitalizing on that momentum and maintaining their aggressiveness as a team.

“I think our veteran leaders did a great job and we needed that out of the Hennen girls. Morgan had a great game as a senior for us, but I’m really extremely happy with the girls coming off the bench and what they did,” Johnston said. “Once we kind of got out of that shellshock of this is a big game and settled in, we started getting more aggressive. McKenna Yost started going to the basket a little bit, Ireland did as well and that created things and they kind of fed off of that momentum that we had a little bit. Again, you’ve got to have that type of play out of your leaders but I was really happy with what our role players did to feed off of that and put together a great team effort.”

Morgan Hennen said a key on the offensive end of the floor was their ability to cut to the basket and find the open teammate.

“With them switching screens, I think having us cut back door and getting some good looks down low was working the best,” she said.

Up next

Minneota (30-1) will find out its state opponent this weekend, with the tournament beginning on Thursday. Going into the state tournament, Johnston said their biggest takeaway is when teams make a run, they need to be ready with an answer, especially against the challenging competition at state.

“I think the nice thing about it is you’re going to face good teams, teams are going to have runs and you’ve got to answer those runs,” Johnston said. “We gave them a run early in the game, we needed to turn it around and answer them and we did, so I think when we get these teams in the state tournament with a great caliber type of level, we’ve got to understand that if a team makes a run, we’ve got to respond to it and make your own run and we’ve been pretty good about that all year.”

No. 1 Minneota 78, No. 2 SWC 50

SWC 24 26 – 50

Minneota 38 40 – 78

Scoring: Minneota (M. Hennen 11-19, 2-4 24; A. Hennen 6-22, 5-7 18; A. Rost 4-8, 3-3 11; Rolbiecki 4-10, 1-3 9; Stassen 3-8, 0-0 7; J. Rost 2-5, 1-2 5; Jurrens 1-2, 0-0 2; Yost 1-3, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: Minneota 41 (A. Hennen 10; A. Rost 9; J. Rost 6).

Assists: Minneota 10 (Stassen 4; A. Hennen 3; M. Hennen, Rolbiecki, A. Rost 1).

Steals: Minneota 11 (Rolbiecki 5; M. Hennen 3; A. Hennen 2; A. Rost 1).

Blocks: Minneota none.