“It’s really special, but it almost feels like it hasn’t hit me yet,” Gruenes said about her senior season. “It’s definitely sad to think that this is my last time on the court. Like with volleyball, I obviously had my last home game on the court, but I still had basketball. Now, it’s like the real end.”

Lakeview ultimately struggled with getting shots to fall, while the Vikings continued to chip away offensively along with an all-around strong defensive effort. Minneota had a 3-point lead at the break, eventually building up to a double-digit advantage early in the second and didn’t look back.

The Lakers were held to 24% field goal shooting, and also shot 3 of 14 from deep and 9 of 18 from the foul line. Minneota shot 37% from the field, 3 of 11 from the perimeter and 4 of 6 in free throws.

“Today, it was just all about not making shots. We shot terrible tonight … Some of that is maybe how they [Minneota] were defending, but early in the game, we missed way too many bunnies. The game could have been totally different right out of the first 10 minutes,” Lakeview head coach Mike Imes said. “We were 24% shooting on the night, that’s the worst we shot all year. Free throws, we started out 1 for 9. You’re not going to beat Minneota doing that.​​ It wasn’t for a lack of effort, I thought our girls played extremely hard and I thought we defended well.”

Minneota's Jaylyn Coequyt goes up for a layup in the first half against Lakeview Monday night.

Jaylyn Coequyt led Minneota with a 20-point, 17-rebound double-double, along with a pair of steals. Libby Sussner had a team-high three steals, while Gruenes and Brynn Rost added another 8 points each.

“When we lost to them [Lakeview] earlier in the season [75-67 on Dec. 12], I think it just kind of gave us motivation to come back and we wanted it more,” Gruenes said. “In the beginning, they were killing us on the offensive rebounds. So, I felt like we did better rebounding in the second half to really give us a good chance.”

The first half showed the competitive and physical tone from the jump, with both teams putting together runs while having moments of struggling with turnovers.

Particularly, Anah Schmidt made her length and interior presence known with four first-half blocks. She’s the tallest starter of both teams at 6-foot-1.

“She [Schmidt] controlled the paint. A problem from there was they [Minneota] defended her and they moved her off the block where she’s normally four to six feet out, now she’s eight to 10 feet out. That’s just not her shot,” Imes said. “But, her inside presence was huge … Great defensive game, and she stayed out of foul trouble. We got a lot of minutes out of her.”

Minneota's Autum Anderson scans the offense in the first half against Lakeview Monday night.

Picking up where it ended the first, Minneota opened the second half with four straight unanswered points to extend its lead to 28-21 with baskets from Gruenes and Coequyt.

Minneota continued on its way to its largest lead thus far with 9:28 remaining up by 15, 44-29, following back-to-back layups from Gruenes and Libby Sussner.

Vikings’ point guard Autum Anderson said that Minneota looked over its mistakes made in the first half during the halftime talk, and pointed out specific details to emphasize throughout the second half like maintaining control.

Lakeview began to drive the lane more tenaciously and applied a full-court press to pressure Minneota in an attempt to comeback, having faced a deficit nearly the entire night.

Brook Gunlogson tried to get a Lakers’ spark started after hitting a driving layup to pull into a 44-31 deficit, yet the Vikings’ defensive presence continued to be troublesome for Lakeview. Brynn Stensrud later drilled in a corner 3-pointer with 4:50 to play to cut into a 52-38 deficit.

Lakeview's Anah Schmidt begins to go up for a shot in the second half against Minneota Monday night.

“I was really proud of us on the defensive end. Usually we’re more of an offensive team, we like when we stick to offense, but defense is just as important, as we showed it here,” Gruenes said.

Yet, Minneota didn’t allow Lakeview to embark on a full comeback as Coequyt fought down low for the offensive board and putback for a Vikings’ 57-43 lead with just over a minute to play.

Another Coequyt deep field goal off an inbound play put the dagger on Minneota’s win with 25.8 seconds, as the Vikings ran down the rest of the clock.

For the Lakers, Stensrud led the way with 15 points while Schmidt had a game-high 19 rebounds and six blocks to her 6 points. Stensrud and Gunlogson had three steals each.

“I saw us moving and cutting with purpose,” Anderson said regarding what she saw as the Vikings’ facilitator. “I also think our defense played really well tonight.”

Lakeview built the first lead of the night at 11-6 following a Stensrud 3-pointer before the Vikings put together a resilient 14-0 run to take a 20-11 lead.

A 3 from Natalie DeCock tied Minneota with Lakeview 11-11, followed up with a deep-2 from Coequyt and fastbreak layup from Brynn Rost.

Anderson hit a 3-pointer and Gruenes drove in for a floating layup to add to Minneota’s run before a Schmidt block turned into a bucket for Aubrey Nething to get Lakeview back on the board.

The Lakers in return got some rhythm going again to close in on a 24-21 deficit at halftime with the help of a post-up from Schmidt and layup from Gunlogson.

“I feel like we played hard, and as a team. We knew that they’re going to be a good team coming into it, so we had to play hard,” Anderson said. “We’ve been getting a little better at closing out our close games and wanting to push it. So, I think we just really wanted this one, and we came together as a team.”

Both the Vikings and Lakers have been maintaining winning seasons in their 2025-26 campaigns, and have been building up momentum as playoffs near beginning toward the end of next week.

Coming into Monday, Minneota had won seven of its last eight games including five in a row, while Lakeview had won four of the last five and was also on a five-game win streak prior.

Lakeview (19-6) has one more regular season game remaining, and will look to enter the postseason on a positive note when it hosts Canby (10-12) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The Lakers will host senior night on Friday, honoring Schmidt, Stensrud, Gunlogson, Jovie Benson, Kiannalee Olson, Aubrey Nething and Teegan Fiene.

“It’s going to be a special night. Senior night, it’s a lot of emotions going on there, but yeah, we worked too hard this season to just hold up after a game like this,” Imes said. “We will have a couple good days of practice, and hopefully we’ll be back home and there will be a little bit more shots going in the hoop for us.”

Minneota (16-7) will wrap up the regular season with a trio of road games, also looking to go into playoffs on a good foot. The Vikings will travel to Renville County West (4-17) on Thursday with a 7 p.m. tip off. They will then take on No. 7 Mayer Lutheran (16-5) on Friday, followed by Yellow Medicine East (7-15) on Monday before section play begins.

“I’m really trying to take it all in,” Gruenes said. “For our games Thursday, Friday, we’re staying over at a hotel, so that’s [going to be] a special time to spend with my teammates.”