Finstad scores career high as Greyhounds down Raiders
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NEW ULM -- Margo Finstad's career night on Monday complimented teammate Jenna Hotovec's 26 points as New Ulm Cathedral topped Nicollet 62-48 in a nonconference girls basketball game at Cathedral High School.
Finstad, a sophomore, dropped a career-best 20 points on the Raiders to help lead the Greyhounds in the win. Her night ended with less than five minutes to go, however, as she went down with a sprained ankle and was helped off the court.
The ankle injury may spoil some upcoming December plans for Finstad, but it didn't spoil the night for her or the Greyhounds.
Finstad drove to the hoop with much success in the first half, but she also had a pair of 3s to guide her to her first-ever 20-point game. She had 16 of her points in the first half alone.
"I'm proud of myself because I've never done it [scored 20] and I've never been that confident before," Finstad said.
Finstad credited her teammates for keeping her involved as much as she was.
"Moving the ball around definitely helped, quick passes, making the defense work," she said.
Maddie Gilles also had 12 points for Cathedral.
Savannah Klockziem had 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead Nicollet, while Leah Bode had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Cheyenne Klockziem had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Despite three players in double figures, turnovers and failing to close out hurt that balanced effort by Nicollet in the end.
Much like last Friday's home win over Minnesota Valley Lutheran, where the Greyhounds got hot near the end of the first half and took a 20-point halftime lead, the Greyhounds had another 20-point lead at the half on Monday.
Cathedral pushed its first-half lead over Nicollet to 38-15 after a 12-0 run that was led by two layups and a 3 by Finstad.
The Raiders got an and-one before the half by Savannah Klockziem to trail 38-18 at halftime.
Nicollet head coach Sarah Strobel said her squad was supposed to start the second half pressing but didn't do that, allowing the Greyhounds to go on a 7-0 run and push their lead to 45-20, their largest lead of the night.
"We weren't getting out on the shooters, we weren't closing out, we weren't playing very good defense in general," Strobel said. "We switched it again and tried a different press and back into our 2-3 zone since it seemed to be making [Cathedral] take worse shots, and they weren't hitting them, and that helped. We were able to close the gap a little bit there. We also moved the ball better on offense, so we were getting better looks.
"So, we did get it down to [14], and then they hit a couple 3s again, so that didn't help. And again, that's just we weren't closing out on shooters like we were supposed to be, we weren't shifting in the zone very well. … But they didn't quit and I had some young girls in there and they were playing some solid defense."
After the Raiders got a bucket inside by Bode to trail 49-34, Hotovec answered with a corner 3. A steal and layup by Jazmyn Goettlicher had the Raiders back on the board moments later, but Hotovec again responded with another corner 3 to have Cathedral up 55-36, forcing a Nicollet timeout with 5:38 left to play.
Nicollet got the deficit back down to 14 after that, but the damage was done as the Greyhounds rolled to their second consecutive win.
Cathedral (2-3) hosts Wabasso at 6 p.m. Tuesday, while Nicollet (1-3) hosts Mankato Loyola at 7 p.m. Tuesday.