Photo by Jake McNeill Minneota’s Dakoda Hennen (14) goes for a layup past a pair of Sleepy Eye defenders in the Borch’s Holiday Classic at Southwest Minnesota State University on Wednesday afternoon.

MARSHALL — The Minneota girls’ basketball team came up short in their Borch’s Holiday Classic matchup against Sleepy Eye Wednesday night, dropping the game 49-38 at Southwest Minnesota State University.

“We just ran out of gas on a back-to-back,” Minneota head coach Alan Panka said. Knowing we have another one tomorrow night, it’s tough to go after them with what we maybe could’ve.”

The Vikings had no scorers finish in double figures on the night. Grace Hennen and Kenadi Arndt led the Vikings in scoring with 8 and 9 points respectively.

The Vikings’ struggles largely stemmed from the Sleepy Eye interior defense. Minneota was forced to settle for midrange or 3-point jumpers rather than penetrating into the rim. The Vikings shot 3-11 from beyond the arc.

“We tried at halftime to adjust our offense a little bit, putting our post opposite so we’d have some space to drive, but we hadn’t really practiced it. That showed that we weren’t really used to being able to put the ball on the floor and go to the rim,” Panka said, adding that his team reverted to their earlier strategies when the adjustments failed, but that he couldn’t blame them because they hadn’t practiced it enough.

Additionally, turnovers were a problem for Minneota, particularly in the first half. The Vikings were called for traveling and carrying violations on multiple occasions, an issue which Panka attributes to just needing to knock off the rust.

The Vikings finished the game with 16 turnovers, compared to nine for the Indians.

Megan Krog played well in the post for the Vikings. She finished the game with a team-high seven rebounds, five of which came on the offensive glass.

Minneota (3-1) will try to get back into form tonight when they go on the road to face Tracy-Milroy-Balaton at 7:30 p.m.