MINNEAPOLIS — Just a few days prior to Friday’s Class A championship between the Minneota girls basketball team and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, Vikings senior guard Abby Hennen went to the free-throw line in a tied semifinal matchup against Mountain Iron-Buhl with 2.1 seconds left and made the game-winning free throw to advance her team.

This time, Hennen went to the line with the Vikings leading by one over the Jaguars with two seconds remaining. After the first attempt went in, Hennen let out a sigh of relief. Then she calmly sank the second one, putting her team up three. BBE’s last-second attempt was off the mark and Minneota held on for a 48-45 victory at Target Center to win the Class A title. The championship is the Vikings’ third overall in program history and first since the 2018-19 season.

“It feels good; I think every senior hopes to end their season with a run like this and it’s a nice feeling,” Hennen said. “It’s kind of crazy that we were able to have a perfect season, too. I don’t think I had one since I started playing on varsity.”

While Minneota was able to cap off a perfect season at 25-0, the Jaguars certainly made the Vikings earn it. With Minneota holding a 40-24 lead with 11:27 left, the Vikings saw BBE get a layup to draw to within 11 with 7:40 to go before the Jaguars used a pair of free throws and another layup to cut the deficit to seven at 41-34 with five minutes remaining. After a jumper by BBE made it a five-point contest with 2:30 to play, the Vikings were in desperate need of a response with only one point scored by Minneota in nearly nine minutes.

McKenna Yost gave the Vikings fans something to cheer about with a nifty layup to give Minneota its first field goal in 10 minutes and put them up 43-36 with 1:30 left, but BBE still had plenty of fight left. The Jaguars got a jumper before Josie Knutson connected on a 3-pointer – the first and only one made by BBE – to make it just a two-point game at 43-41 with a minute to play.

Jeren Rost was able to answer with a layup for Minneota, but back came BBE with another basket on the ensuing possession before Hennen sealed the game at the line.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston said they knew BBE was going to try and take away some of the things they do well as a group and was pleased to see several kids step up and contribute.

“It was definitely a group effort. We knew BBE was going to play good defense and we talked about the importance of them trying to take away the things we do well and forcing us to do things we don’t do well,” Johnston said. “We needed others to be ready and contribute and I thought we did that; Abby Rost, Natalee Rolbiecki, Jeren Rost, McKenna Yost and Kennedi Jurrens all made key contributions for us and that’s what we needed.”

Both teams had slow starts offensively, with Minneota holding a 2-0 lead before BBE got on the board with a layup with 15 minutes left in the first half. The Jaguars would get a 4-0 run to take a 6-4 lead, but Abby Rost connected on a 3-pointer on the other end to give Minneota a 9-6 advantage with 10:50 left in the half.

The Vikings then caught fire from beyond the arc over the next few possessions, as Abby Rost and Rolbiecki combined for three triples to highlight a 14-4 run and push Minneota’s lead to 23-10 with 5:22 to go. The double-digit advantage for Minneota would hold until the closing seconds when a BBE layup cut the deficit to 26-18, but Abby Hennen quickly put the Vikings back up 10 with a basket to end the first half.

Looking to keep the momentum on its side, Minneota got two quick baskets to open the second half and took a 15-point advantage at 33-18 before BBE answered with four straight points of its own. The Vikings then got a 3-pointer from Yost and a layup by Abby Rost to push its lead to as many as 16 before the Jaguars began their late rally attempt.

Abby Hennen and Abby Rost led Minneota with 12 points each while Rolbiecki added 10 and Yost had seven. Abby Rost led in rebounds with nine while Abby Hennen led in assists with five. As a team, Minneota shot 38.6% (17 of 44) from the field, but made six 3-pointers and 8 of its 13 free throw attempts.

Hennen said in the first half, they were able to get around BBE’s press and find the open player on the floor, which led to quality looks on offense.

“Abby [Rost] and I were able to get around their press and when somebody from BBE had to go guard us, it left one of us open and I think we did a good job of kicking out passes and getting shots, especially in the first half,” Hennen said.

Defensively, the Vikings limited BBE to just 32% shooting (16 of 50), including 1 of 12 from 3-point range and forced 13 turnovers.

Hennen said their key defensively was being able to match BBE’s aggressiveness with rebounding and felt they did a good job of limiting them to one shot on their possessions.

“We knew it was going to be a low-scoring game because both teams are aggressive on defense,” Hennen said. “It was about rebounding and boxing them out; they have some tall girls who are aggressive for rebounds and we did a good job of limiting them to one shot on offense.”

Saluting the seniors

Friday’s game marked the final one for Minneota’s two seniors in Abby Hennen and Abby Rost. Johnston said both of them have contributed a lot for their program both on and off the floor throughout the years and they’ll be missed next season.

“They’ve done a lot of great things for us. Abby Hennen has been a major contributor since her freshman year and does a lot of different things and has always been a great leader,” Johnston said. “Abby Rost had a great senior season and was able to improve and do more every year. Both of them handled the pressure for us, especially [today] and provided a lot of leadership.”

Offseason

Minneota will bring back the majority of its roster from this season. Despite losing Abby Hennen and Abby Rost to graduation, Johnston said they will rely on their experienced players to lead the way while also having younger players step up into larger roles next year.

“We’ve strived as a program to keep the success going and we’ve had some talented kids graduate and have been able to find ways to fill in their roles,” Johnston said. “We’ll have a good foundation back next year and we’ll need the role players to step up and keep the momentum going.”

Minneota 48, BBE 45

BBE 18 27 – 45

Minneota 28 20 – 48

Scoring: Minneota (A. Hennen 3-8, 5-6 12; A. Rost 5-10, 0-1 12; Rolbiecki 3-5, 2-4 10; Yost 3-6, 0-0 7; Jurrens 2-7. 0-0 4; J. Rost 1-3, 1-2 3); BBE (Knight 5-10, 1-3 11; Knutson 4-12, 2-3 11; Jones 2-7, 4-4 8; Lindsay 3-5, 0-0 6; French 1-2, 2-2 4; Berge 0-8, 3-8 3; Kampsen 1-4, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: Minneota 31 (A. Rost 9; Rolbiecki, Stassen 4; Jurrens 3); BBE 37 (Knight, Berge 10; Jones 5).

Assists: Minneota 15 (A. Hennen 5; A. Rost 3; Rolbiecki, Yost, Stassen 2); BBE 7 (Knutson 3; Berge 2).

Steals: Minneota 5 (Rolbiecki 2; A. Hennen, Yost, Stassen 1); BBE 9 (Knutson 3; Knight, Kampsen 2).