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Springfield runs past Nicollet

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello Springfield’s Cylee Graff (4) gets a shot off despite pressure from Nicollet’s Jill Thompson (24) during the first half Monday in Nicollet.

NICOLLET — After a back-and-forth first half on Monday night, Springfield finished strong in the second half and pulled away from Nicollet/Loyola for a 58-41 victory in nonconference girls’ basketball action.

The Tigers (8-7) were led by Sydney Hauger with 17 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Courtney Wendt added 9 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Also for Springfield, Samantha Richert added 8 points, while Mackenzie Lothert had 7 points and eight boards and Taylor Augustin had 6 points and seven boards.

For Nicollet (3-13), Grace Dehen led the way with 12 points, while Jill Thompson added 7 points and nine rebounds and Marah Hulke had 6 points. Kendall Robertson also had seven rebounds for the Raiders.

After Springfield led by 4 in the opening minutes of play, Nicollet went on a brief 6-0 run to lead 14-10 after a mid-range jumper by Hulke. That run was ended after Meriah Kirchstein dropped in a 3, kicking off a 9-0 Springfield run for a 19-14 Tigers lead.

The Raiders battled back, though, and led 24-23 after Zoey Weller hit a jumper and added a free throw. Despite the brief comeback, the Tigers ended the half on a 7-0 run for a 30-24 lead at halftime.

Turnovers, however, began to plague the Raiders in the second half as the Tigers jumped out to a 34-24 lead to start the second half after a bucket each from Hauger and Wendt.

“We didn’t have our focus,” Raiders head coach Kevin Christenson said of the second half. “We talked about, ‘If we want to win this game, we have to have no more than five turnovers in the second half.’ I think we had five turnovers in the first two minutes. We went out there and just turned it over, turned it over.

“But we’ve got to be able to keep our focus, and I think some of these teams we can play with for extended periods — we have a hard time playing with them for 36 minutes. Part of that, though, is just learning as a team, being able to keep our focus. We’re getting better every game … and that’s all you can ask for.”

After a 3 by Lothert had the Tigers up 41-28, the Raiders managed to chisel the deficit back down to 9. The Tigers didn’t intend to let up, however, and after an 11-0 run that was capped off on a 3 by Richert, they led 54-34.

The Tigers ended up leading by as much as 21.

“We just kind of just wanted to clean up the little things that we were doing wrong,” Springfield head coach Dillon Schultz said of his team’s second-half adjustments. “For the most part, we were playing okay, just not hitting shots. But we canceled our game Friday, so we’ve had a week layoff, and not having an official team practice since last Thursday might have hurt us, not having school today, making the trip, the excuses can add up, but when it comes down to it, we needed to get after it.

“We cleaned it up in the second half and I thought the energy and the fight was a lot better.”

Springfield hosts New Ulm Cathedral for a 7:30 p.m. Tomahawk Conference game Thursday, while Nicollet is at Janesville to take on Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton for a Valley Conference matchup at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday.

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