West Central Area rallied from a 42-30 halftime deficit to upset the Minnewaska girls basketball team in the Section 3AA opener, Saturday night at home, 74-59.

It was a tale of two halves and unfortunately for Minnewaska Area, the second half was a little better for the WCA than the first half was for the Lakers.  After scoring 42 points in the first half, Minnewaska was held to just 17 points in the second half as WCA outscored the Lakers 44-17 to pull out the dramatic win.

The Lakers, who beat WCA twice during the regular-season including 59-56 in their previous game, ended the season with a 12-13 overall record after going 12-6 in their last 18 games.  Minnewaska Area was also 6-6 in the conference.

The Knights moved on to face second-seeded Montevideo, Tuesday (tomorrow) with the winner most likely facing top-seeded NLS in the Section 3AA finals, Thursday, March 2 at SMSU.   The Section 3AA title game is slated for 5 p.m., Friday, March 10 at SMSU. 

“West Central has a good squad; always a team one has to play tough against,” Laker head coach Sidney Schiffler said before the game.  “We have to be ready to go from the very beginning and bring our ‘A’ game defensively and offensively.”

Minnewaska Area will graduate four seniors from this year’s team — Olivia Bleick, Mikalyn Andreas, Broke Kolstoe and Leslie Murken.

WCA 74, Minnewaska 59

The Lakers played one of their best offensive halves in the first half, scoring 42 points to go into halftime with a 42-30 lead.

With the score tied 9-9 with 13:30 left in the first half after three-straight free-throws by WCA, the Lakers went on an 18-6 run to go up 27-15 with 6:54 left in the half.

Freshman Lauryn Ankeny had seven of those points for the Lakers, while sophomore Sydney Dahl had five points and Brooke Kolstoe had two nice baskets inside.

The Lakers, who shot just 23 percent from the field (18-for-77) had their chances for an even-greater lead, but was having a tough time finding the bottom of the basket.

The Knights, who were led by 6-foot-2 senior center Clair Stark, cut the Minnewaska Area lead to 32-25 a few minutes later, but the Lakers went on a 6-0 run on two baskets by Dahl and another by Ankeny to up its lead to 38-25 before setting for a 42-30 lead at halftime.

Everything was working for the Lakers, who were 18-of-28 from the free-throw line for the game.

“Our defense was super in the first half and it led to a lot of easy baskets for us,” coach Schiffler said.  “However, we weren’t able to capitalize on some of our chances and that might have hurt us in the long run.”

The Knights scored the first five points of the second half before the Lakers scored their first second-half points at the 13:37 mark to stay ahead 44-35.

A three-pointer by Alia Randt pushed the lead back to 12 points (47-35), which would prove to be the largest lead of the night and a nice assist from Randt to Brooke Kolstoe kept the Lakers up 49-37 with just over 11 minutes left in the game.

From that point on, the Lakers were outscored 37-10 as the Knights’ relentless pressure continued unabated and the WCA offense started clicking like an expensive Swiss watch. Only two minutes after holding the 49-37 lead, the Lakers found themselves trailing 51-50, but a three-pointer by Dahl and a steal and layup by Ankeny put the Lakers ahead for the final time at 55-53 with about 6:35 left.

It was all Knights from that point on as WCA scored 21 points over the final 6:20 of the game while the Lakers added just four points on three free-throws by Ankeny and one by Megan Thorfinnson.

Sandwiched in that period was the 1,000th point by Stark, who reached the milestone on the basket that tied up the game for the final time at 55-55.

Ankeny led the Lakers with 17 points, two rebounds and five steals, while Dahl added 14 points, two assists, five boards and four steals, and Thorfinnson had 10 points and two rebounds.

The Lakers had seven players hit the scoring column as Brooke Kolstoe had eight points, five rebounds and two steals, Alia Randt had five points, three assists and five steals, Leslie Murken had a three-pointer for three points, and Jayda Kolstoe had two points.  

“Our team played a great game and I’m proud of the girls’ effort, but it’s tough to beat a team three times and you just have to give credit to WCA for never giving up and getting hot at the end,” coach Schiffler said.  “It was still a very good season.” 

Minnewaska had nine players see action against WCA, including two seniors, one junior, three sophomores and three freshmen so the Lakers will continue to be very strong in the coming years.

WCA 74, at Waska 59

Minnewaska (12-13) 42 17 — 59

WCA 30 44 — 74

WASKA stats:  18-77 FG (5-22 3pt); 18-28 FT; 7 assists; 21 rebounds; 21 steals; 16 fouls; 11 turnovers . . . Scoring:  Lauryn Ankeny 17, Sydney Dahl 14, Megan Thorfinnson 10, Brooke Kolstoe 8, Alia Randt 5, Leslie Murken 3, Jayda Kolstoe 2 . . . Rebounding:  Dahl 5, B. Kolstoe 5, Ankeny 2, Addy Kath 2, Avery Fier 2, Thorfinnson 2. . . Assists:  Randt 3, Dahl 2 . . . Steals:  Ankeny 5, Randt 5, Dahl 4, B. Kolstoe 2, Kath 2 

WCA stats:   Stats not available

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