COTTONWOOD — A furious rally from the Lakeview girls basketball team fell short on Thursday. The Minneota Vikings led by as many as 18 points in a game that ended up going down to the wire, with Minneota eventually capturing the 63-57 victory.

“The biggest thing, I think, was the confidence from the way we played the whole rest of the game,” Panka said. “That was what got us through it [Lakeview’s comeback bid]. We did things right almost all night. It wasn’t that we were doing things wrong at the end, they were hitting some shots and we were in a little foul trouble. So we were rotating some different people in, but by and large, took care of what we had to at the end.”

Minneota led 30-25 when it started to find a rhythm. Eden Meagher and Kiersyn Hulzebos got back-to-back baskets and a Nevaeh Hennen 3-pointer brought the Vikings’ lead up to double digits. 

Jaylyn Coequyt kept the run going, threading a dime to Meagher and scoring through contact herself for an and-1. While she missed the free throw, Sarah Gruenes got the offensive rebound and Hulzebos assisted another Meagher bucket to make the score 43-25 with 12:25 remaining.

Hennen and Meagher finished as Minneota’s leading scorers with 14 and 13 points respectively. The Vikings put together a balanced effort on the offensive end all night long, with their balanced attack limiting Lakeview’s ability to hone in on any one player.

While some teams would have seen the writing on the wall at that point, Lakeview showed no signs of quitting. Brynn Stensrud hit a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to start a Laker run and eventually cut it to 10 points, 49-39, with another basket.

Aleiah Rosenau caught fire with her jump shot in the second half, eventually forcing Minneota to call a timeout when her baseline jumper cut the deficit to 57-50 with three-and-a-half minutes remaining.

Free throws helped Lakeview close the gap down the stretch. A loose ball foul against Minneota sent Savannah Louwagie to the line for a 1-and-1, which she made the front end of, and Anah Schmidt grabbed the offensive rebound on the miss for a putback. Stensrud then knocked down another pair of free throws to make it a one-possession game.

“I think it just shows our character. This team believes in each other and they didn’t quit the entire game,” Lakeview head coach Mike Imes said, noting that his team also made a furious comeback effort in its loss to Minneota earlier in the year when it trimmed a deficit from 21 points down to 5. “I think it shows how much they truly want to fight for each other and the belief that they thought they were going to come back and win that game. There was no doubt in their minds that they were going to find a way.”

After a pair of Coequyt layups with two minutes left made it a two-possession game, a Stensrud midrange jumper and Minneota travel gave the Lakers the ball with the chance to tie. Lakeview missed the shot and Louwagie grabbed the offensive rebound, but a swarm of Vikings forced a tossup to give Minneota the ball back.

Another Viking travel call gave Minneota the ball back with the chance to tie with 90 seconds left, but Lakeview’s 3-point attempts wouldn’t fall. Sarah Gruenes then took advantage of an open lane to knock down a dagger layup, and the Vikings outlasted Lakeview’s intentional fouls for the win.

Minneota’s 2-3 zone stymied Lakeview early but the Lakers’ press limited Minneota’s ability to take advantage. A Coequyt stop-and-pop bucket gave Minneota the only points of the game’s first three minutes before Hulzebos came up with a steal and a free throw.

Gruenes brought Minneota’s lead to two possessions for the first time with a layup four minutes in, but Stensrud got the Lakers on the board shortly thereafter by spinning into a stepback jumper.

Stensrud finished the night as Lakeview’s leading scorer, scoring 20 points on 6 of 31 shooting. Rosenau was second with 17 points on 7 of 14 shooting and 3 of 8 shooting from 3-point range, while Bossuyt, Schwartz and Schmidt each added 5 or more points.

“Greta, great game out of Brynn and out of Rosie. I thought Rosie really stepped up and hit some big 3s in the second half, and I can’t say enough about Reagan Bossuyt coming off the bench like that,” Imes said. “She gave us some major minutes and the hustle play and rebounds she made for a 5-5 girl, what a great game she had.”

The two teams stayed within striking distance of each other until a Reagan Bossuyt free throw for Lakeview trimmed Minneota’s lead to 15-10.

From there, Minneota took over with an 11-0 run over the course of nearly five minutes. Hulzebos got the stretch kicked off with a pair of free throws, and back-to-back buckets from Eden Meagher and Nevaeh Hennen brought the lead to double digits. 

After swatting away her second ferocious block of the first half, Meagher knocked down another shot to make the score 23-10 when Lakeview called a timeout. A Hulzebos 3 capped off the run with Minneota leading 26-10.

Lakeview had multiple opportunities to end the drought at the free-throw line, but went 0-for-2 both times. Stensrud finally ended the drought with a pair of free throws with 21 seconds left and Lakeview went into halftime trailing by 12 points.

Lakeview possessed a significant size advantage in the game, but Minneota generally prevented the Lakers’ ability to capitalize inside. Lakeview was able to dominate the offensive glass, grabbing 23 offensive rebounds including seven from Schwartz and four from Bossuyt, but struggled to get off quality looks in the paint after those second-chance opportunities. 

“Yeah, we gave up some size, but tonight we definitely had the heart that came out and took care of what we had to on the inside,” Panka said. “They hit some 3s on us, but we don’t match up girl-for-girl on the inside with them, they just have too much size. So we ran that zone against them most of the game. We had that chance to double them a little bit and just put extra pressure on the inside girls, and the girls did a good job of rebounding out of it too.”

Schwartz finished with nine rebounds while Louwagie finished second on the team with six.

Meagher scored first for the Vikings to start the second half, but a pair of Rosenau buckets — the latter of which was set up by an Aubreigh Rausch steal — cut the deficit to 10 points. 

Stensrud then brought Lakeview within single digits with a steal and a layup, and a Louwagie bucket brought it down to 6 points. Meagher stopped the slide with a basket of her own, but a Rosenau 3-pointer made the score 30-25.

Lakeview falls to 16-7 on the year with the loss. The Lakers will go on the road to face Canby (13-10) on Monday before wrapping up their season at home against Yellow Medicine East (8-14) on Thursday.

Minneota improves to 14-10 with the win and will look to finish strong in the Viking Gym, hosting Renville County West (6-15) on Monday and Canby (13-10) on Thursday.

“I hope [Thursday’s win] puts us facing the right direction where we need to keep going,” Panka said, noting that Minneota intentionally picks a tough non-conference schedule to put them in a position to compete come playoffs. “I kind of got after [the team] before the game tonight saying that, it’s none of your fault, but we’ve got a target on us from the last 15, 20 years of success. We’re getting everybody’s best game every night. Teams are feeling like maybe we’re a little down because our records down, but we’re playing against the best games everybody’s playing in the season. It seems like they stood up to the challenge tonight.”

Panka added that he felt like the first half was his team’s best half of the season and he hopes that his team can keep the momentum going with another rematch against a “good and well-coached” Lakeview team potentially in the future.