submitted by Matt Schrank, Head Coach
The Big East Conference Tournament is always a fun weekend for our athletes. We went in as the #3 seed and came out with 3rd place.
The first game we played Chester, which was a rematch from January 3rd. We came out fast and started the game with a 22-5 1st quarter lead. Our press was just a bit too much for them and we forced a lot of turnovers and that turned into some fast break layups. We were up 52-22 after 3 quarters which means the clock runs unless there is a time-out, the final score was 60-24. Lizzie Olson had a nice game with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Lauren Heesch had 13 points and 4 steals. Jaelyn Benson, Mya Long, and Rachel Kindt all had 3 steals and Aftyn Heitkamp had 4 assists.
The 2nd round game was another rematch, this time against the Flandreau Fliers. We dropped the last one to them by 28 points just 2 weeks prior, so we were excited to show everyone that we had more in us than that last effort. The game was back and forth, with them coming out early and forcing some turnovers and getting some easy buckets.
Once we settled in we made a couple of nice runs ourselves. We had a rough first quarter and were down 16-5. But, we didn’t seem to be thinking about the mistakes we were making, but how to make a play the next trip. We had a good 2nd quarter and closed the game and were only down 22-26 at halftime. We came out with a bang right after halftime with a 9-0 run, and pulled ahead by 5.
They ended the quarter with a couple of baskets and still led at the quarter break 40-38. The 4th quarter went back and forth till about the 3 minute mark, when we ran out of gas and missed a few shots, and they didn’t. They ended up beating us 60-48, in a fun back and forth matchup. Lizzie Olson led us in scoring with 23 points and she also hauled down 17 rebounds and chipped in 5 steals. Lily Ranschau had 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocks. Lauren Heesch had 8 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 blocks.
In the 3rd place game we were matched up with Beresford. In a game that we controlled the majority of, we just couldn’t seem to hit the big shots to put away the Lady Watchdogs. It was a good matchup of defense and we came away with the 46-37 win. Lizzie led us in scoring for the 3rd straight game with 21, Jaelyn Benson chipped in with 10. Lizzie had 9 rebounds, Jaelyn with 6 as well as Lauren Heesch with 6. Jaelyn also had 3 steals and 4 assists.
