BLHS head coach Jesse Weick said his squad responded well after starting the season off 0-2 and continued to persevere all season. After a state semifinals loss to Mountain Iron-Buhl on Friday, the team regrouped once again.

“The way that the season started for us, that 0-2 mark, I’ve told the girls many times before, but that is still the best thing that ever happened to us,” Weick said. “And we look at our season record afterwards, the teams that we played, and what did we end up with — 29-2 to finish out the year. We broke many school records, but just the way the girls stayed together as a family I think is probably the biggest thing that I’m proud of overall as a coach.

“Through all the ups and the downs and the way that we responded after yesterday’s loss, because we could have just packed our bags and called it quits, but we came back and played very well and, honestly, I still think well enough to play in any type of game in Class A versus any team in Class A.”

The Mustangs hit 15 of 26 shots from beyond the arc in the win. That 3-point party also tied a single-game program record for 3s made and led the Mustangs to another celebration as they finished the season with the third-place state trophy and a 29-4 record.

Photo by Kate Maiers Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart celebrates after defeating Underwood to take third place at the Class A State Girls Basketball Tournament on Saturday at Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

Lily Hubin led the way for the Mustangs with four of those 3s for 23 points while also adding three steals.

Ellaina Bergstrom hit four 3s also and finished with 16 points and three steals.

“It’s something that we definitely work on and prioritize every practice, not just this season, but the past 10 years we’ve been playing,” Bergstrom said of the team’s 3-point shooting. “On season and offseason we work on that. And usually I feel like when the twins are hitting or the Lily’s hitting, sometimes I don’t need to get those shots, maybe they’re not going in or something.

“But before the beginning of the game, I was just in my head kind of thinking, ‘OK, this is the last game I get with these girls.’ That first corner 3, I think Kristi passed it to me, and I just knew, ‘OK, I’m getting this one in.’ After that it kind of just snowballed. They weren’t guarding me very well out there, so they just kept passing me the ball and I put it in the hoop.”

Rachel Kottke finished with 11 points for BLHS, while twin sister Kristi Kottke had 7 points to go with eight assists and four rebounds. Elizabeth Ovitt added 9 points, while Jamie Novotny had 10 rebounds and four assists.

Photo courtesy of Kate Maiers From left to right, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Rachel Kottke talks to twin sister Kristi Kottke during a break in the action of Saturday’s state girls basketball third-place game against Underwood at Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

Elizabeth Lukken led the Rockets (28-5) with 20 points, while Kallyn Grove had 17 points and seven rebounds and Ezrah Baker had 8 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

BLHS head coach Jesse Weick said the 3-point clinic his team put on the floor wasn’t the initial game plan, but it was hard to quit when the team got going.

“It wasn’t the initial plan, we have several players who have the green light,” Weick said. “But I just don’t think they were respecting our senior Ellaina very well and I think that she answered the call extremely well with the game that she had. [Elizabeth] also stepped up big. She may not score a lot for us, but she made several 3s for us and when they started hitting those 3s, now it’s only a matter of time before everyone else starts hitting.”

The Mustangs never trailed in Saturday’s game, taking an 11-0 lead right out of the gate.

After back-to-back 3s, one by Rachel Kottke and one by Hubin, an Underwood turnover prompted a quick Underwood timeout. The Mustangs pushed their run and lead to 11-0 out of the timeout after Rachel Kottke got a mid-range bucket off the glass and a 3 to drop. Grove hit a 3 to stop the run and put the Rockets on the board.

Photo courtesy of Kate Maiers From left to right, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s Kristi Kottke hugs teammate Ellaina Bergstrom after subbing out late near the end of Saturday’s state third-place game at Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul.

“I think that’s kind of how we started our first game at state, we started really fast and aggressive,” Rachel Kottke said. “We wanted to set the tone right away. We talk about starting green. If you think of a stop light, how it’s green, yellow and red, you can start yellow, obviously you don’t want to start red or you’re probably not winning the game. But even if you start a little bit timid, that’s still not how we want to start, we want to start green and being the aggressors.”

The Rockets later got within 1, 20-19, after Lukken banked in a shot in the paint, but Hubin got a pair of free throws and a college-range 3 to ignite a 13-0 Mustangs run and end the half up 33-19.

A Bergstrom 3, a Hubin basket inside and an Ovitt 3 finished that 13-0 run.

Bergstrom pushed the Mustangs’ lead to 35-19 with a mid-range jumper before Lukken answered with a bucket.

The teams then traded 3s, with Bergstrom draining a 3 for a 38-21 lead and Ezrah Baker answering with one for a 38-24 score. A third consecutive 3, this one from the corner by Ovitt, put the Mustangs up 41-24.

The Mustangs got another 3 from Hubin to lead 51-34 and force an Underwood timeout with 9:45 left to play. Bergstrom’s 3 gave the Mustangs their largest lead of the game at 64-40. The Rockets got a 9-0 run in the final minutes before Bergstrom’s runner in the paint led to the final score.

Kristi Kottke didn’t have her best shooting performance of the season (2 of 10 from the floor), but she more than made up with it with her defense and finding her teammates for good looks at the basket.

“I feel like with our team, we all just go in every game knowing that we’re going to play our role, but we don’t necessarily know what that is going to look like because we’re all just so good at sharing, but we all can also shoot pretty well,” Kristi Kottke said. “When I saw other people were hitting, I just kind of knew my shot wasn’t going in as well as some other people, so I just looked to drive, get some attention on me and then kick out so other people could shoot more.”

The Mustangs would have preferred to hold the first-place trophy over their heads Saturday, but finishing as the state’s third-best team in Class A is nothing to sneer at.

Kristi Kottke said the loss to Mountain Iron-Buhl on Friday was a learning experience that helped the team respond well on Saturday.

“Every team that comes to state wants to win it all, but I definitely think it came down to MIB just had a lot of experience, too, from playing on this stage for so many years,” Kristi Kottke said. “I think we learned a lot more about ourselves than we thought we would. That [Friday] game that we played MIB, we were kind of just facing every struggle we could, getting into foul trouble, our shots weren’t going in. But it just shows a lot about our team and a lot of about ourselves that we can just battle back and we would never give up.

“We just kept fighting even when things weren’t going our way, so I think that was a blessing in disguise, honestly, to lose that game because we learned so much about each other. Then when we came into this game we could just see how hard we worked and regroup a little bit and realize that if we play as hard as we did yesterday, we can win today.”

Saturday’s game was the final high school game for BLHS’s seniors, the Kottke twins and Bergstrom. Bergstrom was emotional reflecting on the years she spent with the team.

“I think all the tears are gone,” Bergstrom said. “There’s so many things. It’s not just basketball. Every week we’d meet outside of basketball and have bible study and all summer, the tournaments, I guess the tears aren’t gone [pauses]. But it’s just so much more than basketball for us.”

As the BLHS seniors depart, the Mustangs will have big shoes to fill next season. However, the team should be in good hands with several talented younger players ready to lead.

Hubin, who led the way for the Mustangs Saturday, is just one talented sophomore that will be back next year to lead the team, along with fellow sophomore sharpshooter Ovitt and junior Novotny.

The Kottkes will continue their basketball careers together at St. Cloud State University next winter, while Bergstrom will play basketball at Ridgewater College in Willmar.