•  Lakers use late 16-0 run to earn first trip to state for girls team in 26 years

For the first time in 26 years, the Minnewaska Area girls basketball team is headed back to state

The Lakers fell behind early, but rallied for a 53-38 victory over Fairmont in the Section 3AA championship game, Thursday night at SMSU in Marshall.

Minnewaska Area used a 20-7 run at the end of the first half to take a 23-22 lead after falling behind early, 15-3, and then, with the Lakers clinging to a 35-34 lead late in the game, Minnewaska Area went on another run of 16-0 to clinch the victory and send the Lakers on to the state tourney.

The Lakers now advance to the State Girls Basketball Tournament, set for Wednesday through Saturday at various venues on the U of M campus.

“Yes, the girls are super excited and they’ve all just been working so hard,” said coach Nick Danielson.  “I’m super proud of them and you can tell they definitely do not want this season to end.”

Minnewaska Area, which was seeded second in its half of the sub-section, beat Litchfield (63-27), KMS (59-32), NLS (42-36) and Fairmont (53-38) to win the section title, improving to 27-3 overall for the season.

Fairmont upset Jackson County Central in the other half of the section, while the Lakers knocked off top-seeded NLS in the north half

The only three losses for the Lakers this season were to Sauk Centre, NLS and Barnesville.  The Lakers avenged earlier losses to SC and NLS and might have a chance to avenge the loss to Barnesville, which also advanced to state.  In addition, SC won the 6AA title and will join the Lakers at state.

“The gym was so electric at the end of the game and the support from the community has been unbelievable; it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it,” coach Danielson said.  “The energy our fans bring to the gym, the girls just feed off it.  It really cranks up our defense.”

Minnewaska Area has already claimed the third WCC title in school history (also in 2007-08 and 2008-09), broken the school record for wins in a season (previous record of 24 in 1995-96 and 1996-97) and becomes the fifth Lakers girls basketball team to qualify to state, joining the 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97 and 1998-99 teams.  

Minnewaska Area finished second in 1997 and 1999, losing to Mike Dreier and the NLS Wildcats in the 1997 finals (55-51) and also losing to Blake in the 1999 title game (53-44).  In addition, the team went 0-2 in 1995 and 1-2 in 1996.

The Lakers are set to face longtime nemesis Sauk Centre in the opening round at 8 p.m., Wednesday, March 12 at Williams Arena.  With a win, the Lakers would play again Friday, but with a loss to SC, the Lakers would play right away Thursday.

Waska 53, Fairmont 38

A strong defensive effort led the Lakers to a 53-38 victory over Fairmont, Thursday, in the Section 3AA finals at SMSU in Marshall.

The Lakers started off slow offensively, falling behind 6-0 to start the game and 15-3 with about 12 minutes left in the first half.  Minnewaska Area scored its first points of the game on a 3-pointer by Addy Kath at the 14:30 mark and finally scored again with 11:30 left on  a drive by Sydney Dahl.

For those of you counting, that’s two made baskets in the first 7 1/2 minutes of the game.  Fans were beginning to get worried, but the Laker team knew the best was yet to come.

Dahl scored again to cut the deficit to 15-7, but Fairmont, behind the acrobatic play of junior Brylee Miller, scored two more baskets to increase its lead to 19-7.

It was at this time, the seniors on the Laker team decided enough was enough. Megan Thorfinnson drove in for a nice basket with 8:07 left and then hit a huge 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 19-12, forcing Fairmont to call a timeout with 7:01 left in the first half.

A little while later, Thorfinnson hit another 3-pointer and then Addy  Kath drove for a layup and Dahl followed with a quick steal and layup before driving in for another two points on the Lakers’ next possession.

Suddenly, the Lakers were in a 21-21 tie with just under three minutes left in the first half.  “After we fell behind early, I called a timeout,” coach Danielson said.  “The girls were just all really amped up and excited for the game.  We just had to slow down a little bit.  We knew there was a lot of game left and the way we played defense, we knew we could wear them out.”

Thorfinnson hit one more basket before halftime to give the Lakers a 23-22 halftime lead and give Thorfinnson 10 key points over the last 8:07 of the half.

“When we made our run late in the first half and had the one-point lead at halftime, you could really see it on Fairmont faces that they were getting tired already; you could really see it,” Danielson said.  “And, Megan’s 10-point outburst late in the first half was huge for us!”

The first eight minutes of the second half were very tense and when Dahl picked up her third foul of the game very early and Kath went 0-for-2 from the line with 16:34 left in the game, the Lakers were suddenly down 28-23.

The three seniors on the Laker team scored all 23 first-half points, but this was the time for the juniors to make their impact on the game.  Olivia Danielson connected on two-straight possessions to cut the lead to 28-27 and then hit a pair of free-throws to put the Lakers back on top at 29-28.

Following a basket by Fairmont, Jayda Kolstoe made a shot inside, Lauryn Ankeny scored her first two points of the game and Kolstoe scored again with 11:57 left in the game to put the Lakers up 35-30.

That ended a 12-2 run by the Lakers over a span of five minutes.

Minnewaska couldn’t put Fairmont away though as the Cardinals scored four-straight points to cut the Laker lead to 35-34 with 10:15 left in the game.

Little did anyone know that Fairmont would fail to score again for over 8 1/2 minutes while the Lakers would go on a 16-0 run to essentially clinch the big victory.

First, Dahl took in a feed from Thorfinnson for an easy basket and then, after both teams had gone almost three minutes without a score, Kath scored inside for a 39-34 lead with 5:22 left in the game.

A few seconds later, Dahl scored and was fouled for a three-point play and then, Ankeny made three 3-pointers over a span of 2:20 to up the Waska lead to 51-34 with 2:17 left in the game and the celebration was on.

“You could really see our pressure was starting to wear them down the second half, but we were struggling to score a little,” Danielson said.  “It was a nice scoring run that our juniors had to get us a five-point lead, but honestly, I didn’t feel very comfortable until Lauryn made her third-straight 3-pointer.  

“It was awesome when that last 3-pointer went in.  It started to sink in a little that we might be going to state!”

Dahl had 13 points, two assists, three rebounds and five steals to lead the Laker offense, while Ankeny had 11 points and four steals, and Thorfinnson had 10 points, three assists, five rebounds and three steals.

Kath added seven points and seven rebounds, while Danielson had six points and two boards, Kolstoe had four points and five rebounds and Alia Randt had two points, five rebounds and three steals.

Waska 53, Fairmont 38

Fairmont 22 16 — 38

Minnewaska (27-3) 23 30 — 53

WASKA stats:  22-67 FG (6-25 3pt); 3-6 FT; 8 assists; 3 blocks; 27 rebounds; 16 steals; 14 fouls; 9 turnovers . . . Scoring:  Sydney Dahl 13, Lauryn Ankeny 11, Megan Thorfinnson 10, Addy Kath 7, Olivia Danielson 6, Jayda Kolstoe 4, Alia Randt 2 . . . Rebounding:  Kath 7, Randt 5, Thorfinnson 5, Kolstoe 5, Dahl 3, Danielson 2 . . . Assists:  Thorfinnson 3, Dahl 2 . . . Steals:  Dahl 5, Ankeny 4, Randt 3, Thorfinnson 3 . . . Blocks:  Kath 2

FAIR stats:  17-45 FG (1-6 3pt); 3-8 FT; 35 rebounds; 7 steals; 12 fouls; 28 turnovers . . . Scoring:  Brylee Miller 16, Ellie Ortega 11, Kennedy Becker 7 . . . Other stats not available

Check out more photos in our photo gallery!