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MVL girls earn a win at MLC tournament

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Maddie Spurgin (30) takes a shot over Lisa Hoffer of West Lutheran at the Lutheran Tip-Off Tournament Friday at Martin Luther College in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com

NEW ULM — The Minnesota Valley Lutheran girls’ basketball (2-2) got out to a fast start against West Lutheran in the first round of the Martin Luther College Lutheran Tip-Off Tournament. The Chargers ran away with a 71-54 win.

Maddie Spurgin had a big night, scoring 29 points for the Chargers, 18 points coming from behind the 3-point line. Although MVL had a quick start, West wouldn’t let MVL get ahead too far.

The Warriors rallied back to tie the score at 18-18 with 6:30 to play in the first half, but MVL turned around to go on an 11-0 run.

“Lack of turnovers and the girls stepping up thier offensive energy really turned things around for us,” MVL coach Rollin Timm said. “We were standing around a little bit at first but then we realized that we could move the ball around and attack their defense more.”

The Chargers didn’t hit an outside shot in the first 9 minutes of regulation.

“We have shooters that need to gain their confidence,” Timm said. “And once they gain their confidence you can see what happens. They were knocking down a lot of their shots.”

The Chargers went 9-for-20 from beyond the arc.

The Chargers jumped out the second half just as strong as they ended the first half. But again, West Lutheran wouldn’t let MVL get too far away.

“I’m proud of our girls for sticking with it, it would have been easy for them to stop giving it their all when they got up,” Timm said. “I give credit to the West Lutheran girls for never giving up.”

The Warriors’ effort wasn’t enough to bring them back into the game in the final minutes.

The Chargers will play in the Black Division championship game at 3 p.m. on Saturday at MLC.

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