Photo by Sam Thiel Minneota’s Natalee Rolbiecki puts up a layup during their Class A quarterfinal game against Houston on Tuesday at Mankato East High School.

MANKATO — The Houston girls basketball team entered the Class A tournament for the first time in program history and immediately were faced with its biggest problem all season: trying to find a way to stop the top-seeded Minneota Vikings. Or at least slow them down.

The Hurricanes had a one-point lead over the Vikings in the early moments of their quarterfinal matchup, but Minneota changed all of that by holding Houston scoreless for 10 straight minutes and going on a 31-0 run offensively in a dominant first half before earning a 67-34 victory on Tuesday at Mankato East High School.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston said they felt confident in their defensive setup against the Hurricanes and they did a good job of applying pressure and creating turnovers.

“Going into this game knowing how they played their 1-3-1 zone and getting in the lanes and trying to trap, I told the girls I felt like if we could handle the pressure, take care of the ball and not throw it away, that we would be fine. I felt like our half-court defense would be good enough, Houston got a lot of looks throughout the season on turnovers and easy baskets, so we wanted to make them earn it and I felt confident in our defense,” Johnston said. “McKenna Yost just by coincidence started guarding her girl, who was a lefty, and forced her to use her right hand and all of a sudden you saw they weren’t handling the ball really well, so the girls put a little pressure on them and then we went with a full-court press and they struggled with that and I think that was a big difference.”

It was back and forth to start, with Minneota taking an early 4-0 lead before Houston responded with five straight points to go up 5-4 with 15:50 left in the first half. That was the first – and last – time the Hurricanes held the lead. Houston had no answers on either side of the floor for Minneota, as Abby Hennen connected on a 3-pointer before back-to-back layups put the Vikings up 11-5.

Minneota would continue to pour it on offensively over the next several minutes, with a layup by Natalee Rolbiecki making it a double-digit lead at 15-5 before Jeren Rost and Abby Hennen got layups and Ireland Stassen connected on a 3-pointer to push the advantage to 28-5 with under eight minutes left in the half. The Vikings then got another triple and a layup from Abby Hennen to make it 35-5 with 6:30 left in the frame before Houston was able to score a layup to not only stop a 10-minute scoreless streak but also end a 31-point run by Minneota.

The Vikings would continue to lead by at least 28 the rest of the half, with a Houston jumper cutting the deficit to 40-13 with 2:03 left before Yost connected on a 3-pointer to give Minneota a 43-15 lead at halftime.

Johnston said a key for them on the offensive end of the floor, especially in the first half, was their ability to take care of the basketball and gradually take apart Houston’s 1-3-1 zone defense.

“The first thing was just taking care of the ball. With their 1-3-1, we talked about making some cross-court passes and I thought we would have had more, but we didn’t see them right away,” Johnston said. “We had good movement and took care of the ball; if you take care of the ball against the zone, you’re going to eventually get an open look and that’s what we did.”

The two teams traded points to start the second half, with Houston getting as close as 24, but Minneota responded with a 3-point play from Rolbiecki to make it 51-24 with 14:22 left. Minneota kept its foot on the gas pedal, going up as many as 36 at 67-31 on a pair of 3-pointers from Abby Hennen en route to the 67-34 final.

Abby Hennen led Minneota with 21 points while Rolbiecki added 20 and Abby Rost had nine. Rolbiecki and Abby Rost led in rebounds with 10 each while Abby Rost led in assists with seven.

Up next

Minneota (23-0) will face the No. 2 seed in the North bracket of the Class A tournament, Mountain Iron-Buhl, in the semifinals next Tuesday at noon at Target Center. Mountain Iron-Buhl defeated Cass Lake-Bena 50-49 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Going into the next round, Johnston said they know things will only get more challenging and they have to be ready to go from the start.

“The competition is going to get better and better just as we go through. I thought we were a little careless at times, but again, give credit to Houston’s defense, they got to the state tournament for a reason and I think a lot of it was their defense. We don’t see a lot of 1-3-1’s in our area and at this point in time you’ve got to value every possession and make sure you’re not careless with it,” Johnston said. “We shot well [today], I’m not sure if we shot great, I thought we shot well and I’m sure they felt the same way. Now it’s just getting back to the grind, getting ready for the next team and knowing as the games go on, the competition gets tougher and we have to make sure we’re focused.”