Photo by Samantha Davis: Minneota forward Jaylyn Coequyt (2) drives into the paint during a Camden Conference girls basketball game against Canby on Tuesday night in Minneota. The Vikings defeated the Lancers 61-60 in the final seconds.

MINNEOTA — Jaylyn Coequyt’s 27 points and 13 rebounds helped the Minneota girls basketball team hang on for a 61-60 season-opening win over Canby Tuesday night. Brynn Kockelmen led the Lancers with 22 points behind 5-for-8 shooting at the perimeter.

“Both teams went out, and played hard and aggressive. We are very comparable. I think they [Minneota] have a lot of big girls, we’re not as tall, but I think when we use our quickness and our aggressiveness, it helps,” Kockelman said. “I think that even though we lost by 1 point, we can’t hold our heads down. We need to keep our heads up, and it’s the first game of the season.”

Minneota held onto a 36-35 halftime lead in the tightly-contested matchup, after Canby’s Kockelman went on 12-0 run herself behind four-straight 3-pointers, and the game ultimately came down to the final possession.

“It’s game one. Obviously, lots of things we can clean up and do better with,” Minneota head coach Alan Panka said. “They [Canby] got that run to go into the locker room, but we held them, we kept the lead just by that 1 point, and I think that was a big point of keeping our confidence up, because I think if they would have taken that lead, we might have been in trouble … We came out, we jumped on them a little bit to start the second half, and we knew they were going to come back again. It was a dog fight.”

Autum Anderson drew a charge from Kockelman driving the lane in transition after getting a steal, leading to a Libby Sussner basket down low with a feed from Sarah Gruenes to give Minneota a 50-45 lead with 12 minutes remaining.

Coequyt started the momentum coming out of the half with a pair of free throws and an offensive putback, who caused trouble throughout the night for Canby on both the offensive and defensive ends.

Canby’s Emily Nelson was fouled shooting a 3 with just under seven minutes to go, and made two of the shots to pull the Lancers within a 5-point deficit, down 53-48.

After the two teams traded steals and 3-pointers, Coequyt helped to keep the Vikings in front, 61-53, with time winding down following a 3 of her own and another putback with 2:30 to go.

“It was huge. She [Coequyt] had a long 2-pointer right in front of me, and she’s been joking all practice so far this season, ‘Can I shoot a three?’ It’s like, yeah, if you’re open, shoot the 3. Well, that one was like six inches short of it, and the next time on the floor, she was actually behind the line,” Panka said, laughing. “Between her and Autum hitting those big 3s in the second half, that was huge.”

Yet, Canby continued to fight and went on a 6-0 run to bring the game back within a possession with 1:27 remaining, 61-59.

Jordyn Jostock drew a charge with 50.1 seconds on the clock as Canby ran down time on the next possession to 23.4 before Ava Danielson was fouled putting up a shot. She made one of the free throws to pull the Lancers within a point, 61-60.

With 17 seconds left and the final possession belonging to Canby, Minneota’s defense showed up big when it mattered the most and didn’t allow a shot to get off as the buzzer rang to save the season-opening victory.

“It feels good [being back on the court]. I think we were ready for a game,” Kockelman said. “We’ve been practicing for three weeks, so we needed to play a game instead of each other. It was good getting out on the court.”

Both teams faced turnover struggles while working through first-game nerves, but continued to stay within reach of one another the entirety of the game. The Vikings finished with 22 turnovers while Canby had 25.

Minneota’s defense was the gamechanger with 14 steals and 43 rebounds, to Canby’s eight steals and 32 rebounds.

Along with Coequyt, Anderson had 14 points on the night going 4-for-6 at the arc. Jayla Jerzak and Ava Rost each had a trio of steals on the night.

Danielson finished with a team-high eight rebounds to her 13 points for Canby, while Kockelman and Jostock both had a pair of steals.

Minneota ran a frequent full-court press that challenged Canby throughout, but the Lancers were able to break through on a few occasions.

“A couple of the girls were like, ‘Can we get out of this [press]?’ I was like, ‘I think we’re right at the verge of getting a big breakthrough,'” Panka said. “We’re not quite in that shape to do that the whole game, and nor do we probably expect to do that the whole game. We’re going to have to figure out ways to throw it on here and there, and mess with people that way. It worked well at times, didn’t work well at times. That’s kind of the way the first game goes.”

Nearly midway through the first half, the Vikings grabbed three straight steals off its press to earn a 15-10 lead after combined baskets from Coequyt, Eden Meagher, Gruenes and Jerzak.

Kockelman had 5 of Canby’s first 10 points and a game-high 18 after the first half. Coequyt led Minneota with 14 first-half points.

“Once the first few went in [for Kockelman], I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re in trouble,’ because he’s a good shooter,” Panka said of trying to contain Kockelman. “We tried to throw some gimmick junk defenses at them to slow her down a little bit, and it helped a little bit that second half.”

The Vikings were able to maintain a lead throughout the opening half, but Kockelman’s 12-0 run gave Canby its first lead, 34-30, with nearly two minutes to go.

“With the rocky first start, I knew I wanted to change the gear of how the game was going,” Kockelman said of taking charge. “I just really wanted to get things moving, so I really decided to just lock in.”

Prior to Kockelman’s surge, Minneota had a 30-22 lead following a pair of Coequyt buckets off the elbow and inside on the block.

Gruenes ended the run with a pair of back-to-back layups to tie the score back up at 34, as a Coequyt deep-2 gave the Vikings a lead back. Kockelman was fouled in the final seconds and made a free throw to cut into the 1-point halftime deficit.

Canby (0-1) will next have its home opener on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. when it hosts Yellow Medicine East (1-2).

“I think it [the season] will be great,” Kockelman said. “We all know what we’re doing when we get on the court for the most part, and I think we are going to have fun this season.”

Minneota (1-0) will remain at home to host Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (2-0) on Thursday at 7 p.m.