Wabasso downs MVL
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NEW ULM -- Battling Mother Nature and illness for the last few weeks, the Wabasso girls' basketball finished a rare accomplishment in the Tomahawk Conference -- the unbeaten conference record.
Wabasso finished the conference season 16-0, defeating Minnesota Valley Lutheran 71-64 on Tuesday night.
Madi Guetter led the Rabbits with a game-high 27. Jenna Frank scored 14, Sarah Franta scored 12 points and Allison Fenger scored 10 for Wabasso (20-3, 16-0).
The Rabbits, like all teams in the state, have had very little time on the court because of weather. They also had to deal with the school being shut down due to flu in late January.
"Since the 21st of January, we've had three practices, because of snow, because of the flu, in the last five days we've had four games just like MVL," Wabasso coach Neil Dolan said. "It takes a little bit of the fun out of it when you're constantly playing,"
MVL gave the Rabbits a run for their money, but they were unable to make a run at the end. They shot well from 3-point range and they used the up-tempo game to their advantage. However, they just didn't have enough in the end.
"We like to run the court and when they were pressing us, they were actually giving us the opportunity to do that," MVL coach Rollin Timm said. "We took advantage of that pretty well I thought."
Maddie Pearson led the Chargers with 18 points. Emma Nelson finished with 16 points and Abbie Riederer scored 15.
While the Chargers ran the ball up the floor well in the first half, they didn't have an answer for Guetter. MVL stayed close in the first half and Franta hit a late 3 to give the Rabbits a 36-27 lead going into halftime.
In the second half, the Chargers hit some big 3s to stay close. But they were unable to get within 5 as Wabasso seemed to respond with some big shots of its own. Frank hit a couple of 3s, giving the Rabbits a 67-56 lead with 4:40 left.
Pearson hit back-to-back 3s late in the game to close Wabasso's lead to 71-64.
Now Wabasso turns its attention to the Section 3A playoffs, where the Rabbits are the No. 3 seed in the North Subsection. They open against No. 6 seed Russel-Tyler-Ruthton at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Montevideo.
MVL (13-10, 8-7) hosts Springfield at 6 p.m. on Thursday before opening the Section 2A, North Subsection playoffs next Tuesday, hosting No. 6 seed New Ulm Cathedral.