Photo by Chris Drummond Minneota Vikings guard Dakoda Hennen (14) shooting a free throw late in the second half in Thursday evening game against the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers.

TRACY — The Minneota Vikings girls basketball team bounced back from a loss to defeat the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers 65-52 on Thursday evening.

The Vikings took control early in the game, stifling the Panthers on defense by effectively switching from man-to-man. This cut off penetration from the Panthers and forced them to take a lot of contested shots.

Offensively, the Vikings created mismatches and exposed them down low and on the perimeter. The Panthers would continue to fight and kept it close at the end of the opening half and faced a 9-point deficit, 33-24.

In the second half, the Panthers would give a valiant effort and both teams played scrappy. However, each time the Panthers would cut the lead, the Vikings would hit a big basket to maintain it.

Free throws down the stretch gave the Vikings their fourth win of the season, 65-52.

The vaunted press, which had hounded the Panthers’ opponents in their first four games, was not as effective in tonight’s game. The Vikings were able to break the Panthers’ press easily most times and score layups off of it.

Three Vikings players scored in double figures with Ireland Stassen leading the way with 20 points, Dakoda Hennen had 13 points and Grace Hennen had 11 points in the victory. Stassen also had 12 rebounds but also committed seven turnovers.

“We shot the ball way better tonight than we did last night,” Vikings coach Alan Panka said. “We knew they would bring pressure and we were able to handle it for the most part. We got some layups off of it and that is something you have to do, you have to break the press. Thought we did a good job defensively especially switching their ball screen hands off. That helps keep them out of the lane and that was key.”

Jordan Munson for the Panthers had a game-high 23 points and eight rebounds but only shot 33% from the field and also committed eight turnovers. Her teammate Hailey Gernentz had 10 points and four rebounds. None of the starters on the Panthers shot over 33% from the field. Munson, Gernentz, and Dolan all had five fouls in the loss.

“Our play tonight was up and down but you’re going to have that because of the long break, ” Panthers head coach Derek Ashbaugh said.”Minneota did a great job of making us pay when we made a mistake, kudos to them. I loved the way we fought to battle back but we had to not run the press because we were in foul trouble trying to preserve bodies. We have some things to clean up and improve on as the season goes along.”

The Minneota Vikings (4-1) and the TMB Panthers (4-1) both have road contests next Tuesday. The Vikings will travel to play Montevideo High School and the Panthers will travel to play Southwest Minnesota Christian High School.