Minneota Girls Basketball Dominates St. Clair in Convincing Victory

Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota forward Kenadi Arndt (10) attempts a layup through contact during a girls basketball game against St. Clair at Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday afternoon.

MARSHALL — After pulling away late in the first half, the Minneota girls basketball team ran away with a lopsided 67-42 victory over Class 2A St. Clair at Southwest Minnesota State. The Wednesday night win was the fifth straight for the Vikings.

Taking Control after an Early Setback

For the first three minutes and change, the Cyclones had the Vikings spiraling. St. Clair made each of its first three shots of the game to stake an early 7-0 lead. Still, Minneota reversed the momentum quickly.

“I think their quickness surprised us. We knew they were going to be quick but there was another level that we weren’t ready for right away,” Minneota head coach Alan Panka said, adding that he felt the Vikings were fine defensively after adjusting to give the Cyclones that extra step.

Grace Hennen started the shift with a putback layup to give the Vikings their first points of the game and Faith Myhre hit a corner 3-pointer on the following possession to cut the deficit to 2 points. Fastbreak layups from Dakoda Hennen and Myhre then gave the Vikings their first lead seven minutes into the game at 11-10. A Kenadi Arndt layup on the next momentum prompted St. Clair to call its first timeout of the game trailing 13-12.

Myhre Leading the Charge

Myhre led the Vikings’ scoring effort on the night, finishing with a game-high 18 points on 7-of-15 points. She was particularly effective from long range, where she shot 4-of-10. St. Clair finished with a team total of four 3-pointers made.

A Dominant First Half

The Cyclones scored the first points out of the huddle, but a layup from Arndt and Dakoda Hennen gave the Vikings the lead right back. That pair of layups were just the beginning of a 14-0 Minneota run to close the half. Emma Bottelberghe hit a shot and Myhre hit a 3-pointer from the wing to put the Vikings up by 8 points.

A Dakoda Hennen block then set Minneota up in the halfcourt offense. The Vikings missed five consecutive shots on the ensuing possession but got the offensive rebound each time until Myhre finally hit the putback basket to extend the Minneota lead to double figures. Kiersyn Hulzebos closed out the pass by threading the needle with a pass from the top of the 3-point arc to Bottleberghe right under the basket for an easy layup and a 28-16 halftime lead.

“We were focused. We had locked in on defense and we got a few transition baskets out of our defense that turned into some offense. Anytime you can have that happen, it makes it a little easier on the offensive end,” Panka said of the team’s late run.

Strong Second Half Performance

Coming out of the locker room, Myhre scored the first points of the half and Grace Hennen made another hard block for the Vikings before Steph Cink gave St. Clair its first points on a corner 3-pointer. Still, Myhre and Grace Hennen knocked down 3-pointers from the corner and from the top of the arc respectively to extend the Vikings’ lead to 17 points.

The Vikings were effective in their shot-contesting abilities throughout the game. In addition to the Hennens’ blocks, Arndt added another two while St. Clair didn’t have a block in the game. In addition to the blocks, the Vikings’ defense altered many more shots that don’t show up on the stat sheet.

“We knew that they like to fire from the outside so when their dribble was done, we were extending out because we knew they were going to pull the trigger,” Panka said. “We got out there, we were in their face. A couple of times the shot clock kind of went against them and we were close, they had to fire it and we got a couple of those. But yeah, a couple of those girls just made plays and they did a good job.”

Hulzebos gave Minneota a 48-26 lead on a 3-point shot from the top of the arc. After St. Clair converted a free throw on the subsequent possession and Minneota missed a shot on theirs, Grace Hennen came up with a steal to set up Hulzebos’ layup on a 2-on-1 fast break. After St. Clair got a layup of their own on the next possession, Hulzebos got her third straight bucket for the Vikings to put them up 52-29, their largest lead of the game at the time. They would go on to lead by as many as 29 points.

Contributions from the Bench

After leading the Vikings with 12 points in their win over Montevideo on Friday, Hulzebos scored 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting on Wednesday. Dakoda Hennen finished second on the team with 13 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while Arndt added 10 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting.

“[Hulzebos] was aggressive. They were up in her face and she’s got the confidence and ability to go by people in a way that maybe wasn’t the case last year,” Panka said. “Her strength is obviously better this year, quickness is better this year, she’s worked hard and that hard work pays off.”

While Arndt finished the game scoring in double figures, her primary impact came on the glass. She finished the game with five offensive rebounds and 16 total rebounds to lead the Vikings to a 40-18 advantage on the boards. Her effort comes a game after grabbing 19 rebounds against Montevideo.

Strong Team Performance

St. Clair held a slight advantage in the turnover battle, giving away 13 possessions to Minneota’s 14. Still, the Vikings were much more effective with their ball movement. Minneota had 14 assists in the game while St. Clair had just one. Arndt and Grace Hennen led the way with four assists each, while Bottelberghe and Dakoda Hennen each added another two. Grace Hennen also had a pair of steals in the win.

Looking Ahead

The Minneota Vikings improve to 8-1 with the win. They’re currently on a five-game winning streak since their 1-point loss to B.O.L.D., with four of the five wins coming by 20 or more points. They’ll look to keep the streak alive when they take on No. 4 Sleepy Eye at SMSU today at 6:30 p.m. and then face No. 3 Hancock in the Viking Gym on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“You can’t try to win all your games unless you get the first one. We know we’ve got a tough stretch going, this was the first one and we took care of it,” Panka said, emphasizing that Sleepy Eye is a good team with good coaching and good players. “We’ve struggled against [Sleepy Eye] here the last few years here. We lost on a buzzer-beater two years ago and then last year they got us by 10 last year. They’re a good team, they’ve had our number and hopefully third time’s the charm.”