Photo by Chris Drummond Wabasso Rabbits’ Kelsey Frank (2) goes up for a shot in the paint against the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers in the Rabbits’ 52-38 win in Wabasso Saturday night.

WABASSO — The Wabasso Rabbits girls basketball team defeated the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers 52-38 on Saturday night.

The Rabbits came out in an aggressive zone defense that bewildered the Panthers and disrupted their offensive rhythm.

Kelsey Frank paced the Rabbits in scoring with 15 of her game-high 26 points in the first half.

The Rabbits also rebounded the ball well and forced the Panthers into turnovers.

Jordan Munson had an off night and also suffered an injury late in the game, as she was pulled in the second half.

“It is a concern to see Munson go down,” Panthers head coach Derek Ashbaugh said. “Obviously a concern with how we played too. You have to give Wabasso a ton of credit. They were active on the defensive end, getting deflections, and turned them into fast breaking opportunities. We struggled to adapt to that.”

At the beginning of the second half, the Panthers pulled all five starters and put in the reserves to try to get a spark going.

“We needed a spark and we just weren’t getting that on the floor at the time,” Ashbaugh said. “For a few minutes. they gave us that, which was good. We just couldn’t sustain it at any time in the game. Again, Wabasso made us pay for not being ready to play.”

The Panthers cut the lead to 3 points. but that is as close as they would get.

“It is a big win for us, we came out and played good defense in the first half,” Rabbits head coach Neil Dolan said. “It set the tone for us. We controlled the boards and we continued to switch up our zone defense from 3-2 to 2-3. I talked to Frank at practice yesterday and told her don’t settle for the 3-point shot. She is a pure jump shooter and she made some big shots for us tonight. We have won four in a row and we have to continue to believe in ourselves.”

Frank also had seven rebounds in the victory. Avery Carlson had 12 points and team-high six assists and her teammate Sophia Hanna had 10 points in the contest.

“I really focused tonight on my defense and boxing out,” Frank said. “My coaches said to be confident when shooting the ball. Jordan Munson is a great competitor and I just wanted to box her out, play good defense on her. We as a team play phenomenal defense. We got steals, played hard, never gave up and I’m proud of this team.”

Both teams will be traveling on the road for their next contest. The TMB Panthers will travel to play Luverne on Tuesday evening. The Wabasso Rabbits will travel to play against BLHS.

Both games tip at 7:15 p.m.