30th article at the Independent

SECTION 3A GIRLS BASKETBALL: No. 1N Minneota gets past No. 6N MACCRAY, moves on to Section 3A championship

Chris Drummond

cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

MARSHALL — The No. 1N Minneota Vikings girls basketball team was facing an early deficit against the No. 6N MACCRAY Wolverines during their Section 3A tournament game on Friday and Vikings head coach Chad Johnston took a timeout. In that timeout Johnston acknowledged a few things.

“Sometimes as coaches, we overthink things,” Johnston said. “We just went back to doing what we typically would do and made the switch on defense.”

From there on, the Vikings would outscore the Wolverines 28-7 to close the opening half with a 14-point lead en route to a 58-37 victory in the R/A Facility on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University and advance to the Section 3A championship game.

Minneota senior forward Natalee Rolbiecki led the team in scoring with a game-high 24 points. Coach Johnston talked about Rolbiecki’s performance in Friday’s game.

“She’s a great ballplayer for us, has been all year,” Johnston said. “She runs the floor so well and she’s so fast, it is hard for the defense to get back on her when we throw a good pass.”

Pushing the pace was instrumental in the win for the Vikings as they scored multiple baskets in transition. This win marks the 25th win of the season and second win over the Wolverines for Minneota. It also sets up a matchup for the Section 3A championship game against the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers. Both teams split the season series, with each side winning on their home court this season. Coach Johnston had early thoughts on their opponent.

“We have seen Tracy twice already this year,” Johnston said. “The key to Tracy is one, control the penetration and we gotta take care of the ball. Our goal is to handle the pressure that they’re going to put on us next week.”

The Section 3A championship game is next Friday evening inside the R/A facility at SMSU at 5 p.m.

Minneota 58, MACCRAY 37

MACCRAY 18 19 – 37

Minneota 32 26 – 58

Scoring: Minneota (Rolbiecki 9-12, 6-10 24; Jurrens 5-7, 1-3 11; Rost 3-8, 0-2 6; Tolk 2-4, 1-4 5; Stassen 2-5, 0-0 4; Yost 1-4, 1-2 4; Myhre 1-2, 0-0 2; Arndt 1-2, 0-0 2).

Rebounds: Minneota 36 (Rost 7; Tolk, Jurrens 6; Yost, Arndt 4; G. Hennen, Rolbiecki, Stassen 3).

Assists: Minneota 1 (Rolbiecki).

Steals: Minneota 11 (Tolk 6; Stassen 2; Rost, Arndt, Jurrens 1).