“They [Minneota] did a little better job cleaning up some of the turnovers from the first half. Can we do better? Yeah, we can, but they [Redwood Valley] also switched to playing a zone, which wasn’t quite as aggressive right away anyway, until they started trapping towards the end,” Minneota head coach Al Panka said, adding that he felt his team did a better job of passing and valuing its possessions after the break.

Jaylyn Coequyt led Minneota with 20 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Sarah Gruenes had a team-high six steals to her 8 points, while Libby Sussner added another 12 points and eight boards.

The Vikings had two days off from games after sweeping the girls holiday tournament at Southwest Minnesota State University Monday and Tuesday with back-to-back wins. Minneota defeated both Sleepy Eye and Edgerton by 13 and 31 points, respectively.

Redwood Valley entered Friday looking to pick up its first win of the season.

Minneota's Jaylyn Coequyt drives to the basket in the first half against Redwood Valley Friday night.

Both Minneota and Redwood Valley operated in a zone defense. The Vikings were challenged in finding their rhythm to start the game, handing over a string of turnovers with the Cardinals making it a habit to trap at the wings and flood the interior anytime Minneota looked to make an inside pass.

But, the Vikings saw a couple shots begin to fall and got their momentum going midway through the half to eventually build a 21-point halftime lead, 36-15, and didn’t lose sight of their lead from there. Overall, Panka was proud of his team’s defensive performance.

“Again, you can always be nitpicky. There were a few times they got a couple offensive rebounds and then they hit a 3, and it’s like, that shouldn’t happen,” Panka said. “You shouldn’t be giving those up. But, ultimately, we outrebounded them by 46 to 19, so I can’t really get too upset about our rebounding. You remember the ones that turned into points.”

Minneota also had 23 steals to the Cardinals’ 11.

Ava Rost found a cutting Sussner for an opening layup to begin the night’s scoring, as Jaylyn Coequyt took the next 4 points between a layup and pair of free throws for a 6-0 start.

Minneota's Sarah Gruenes takes a shot in the first half against Redwood Valley Friday night.

Redwood Valley responded on a 7-0 run with a pair of 3-pointers and a free throw to take the lead, forcing Minneota to call an early timeout.

Eden Meagher and Leah Coequyt continued to crash the offensive board, as Gruenes got the Vikings back in front, 8-6, by doing the same with an offensive putback after a few scoreless minutes on both ends.

After giving up consecutive turnovers, Minneota returned the favor with its full-court press and back in zone to begin taking control. Meagher and Rost both had four steals each as well.

Panka also credited his team’s zone offense, citing they had several good looks throughout the night from cutters, which he was pleased to see.

The Cardinals made another 3 to tie the score 10-10, to which Sussner had an immediate response with a 3-pointer of her own in the corner as Leah Coequyt had the putback on the next possession for a Vikings’ 15-10 lead with just under nine minutes to go in the half.

Minneota's Leah Coequyt drives to the paint and looks to pass out in the first half.

Sussner found Jaylyn Coequyt cutting the baseline for a layup, followed with a Meagher steal and another Sussner 3-pointer as Minneota broke into a double-digit lead, 20-10.

From there, Minneota only kept extending its advantage and kept cruising away the remainder of the game.

A Gruenes steal and fast break layup, a Jaylyn Coequyt deep 2, and a 3-pointer from Natalie DeCock put Minneota ahead 34-13 as the half wound down.

DeCock finished the first half with a pair of free throws as Redwood Valley got one more shot off in the final seconds to send the Vikings to the locker room ahead by 21. DeCock had 10 points on the night.

“She [DeCock] played well tonight. She came in and hit a couple shots right away. That gets the confidence going, gets her aggressive on defense. It was good. Good to see Libby scoring [too],” Panka said of the team’s growing depth. “We go from playing in Marshall and Ava goes off with six 3s … That’s team basketball. It doesn’t matter who’s doing it. It’s the final on the scoreboard. That’s what we try to preach, that’s the important piece of it. It doesn’t matter who does it, as long as we do it.”

Minneota's Libby Sussner goes up for a layup in the first half against Redwood Valley Friday night.

Jaylyn Coequyt led with 12 first-half points, while Sussner added another 10.

Minneota came out with fire in the second half, eventually forcing a running clock, sparked by Jaylyn Coequyt driving the basket on the first few possessions.

Gruenes and DeCock each had a 3-pointer in the first minutes of the second half, while Minneota kept its fair share of points in the paint while being able to break through Redwood Valley’s zone and press.

Minneota (6-2) will enter one of its toughest stretches in the regular season starting next week. The Vikings will take on MACCRAY (4-3) on Monday at 7 p.m., and Pipestone Area (9-1) next Tuesday in back-to-back games. Minneota will then see No. 7 Central Minnesota Christian (6-1) the following Monday on Jan. 12. The Vikings can’t afford to make early mistakes against next week’s opponents, Panka said.

“Obviously, having Autum [Anderson] go down with an injury, we’re going to have a lot of girls getting some more minutes and maybe points in games to get some experience in those big games with big moments,” Panka said of the upcoming stretch. Anderson, Minneota’s starting point guard, has a hand injury and will be out for a few weeks. “Hopefully, they take it and run with it, because when we get Autum back later, we’ll just have that much more depth because of it … We’re going to work on that depth, and do the best we can with who we got.”