By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
The NRHEG Panthers finally met their biggest nemesis of the season.
It was themselves.
The Panthers picked a bad time for perhaps their poorest performance of the season Friday night in a 56-39 loss to Sauk Centre in the semifinals of the state girls’ basketball tournament at Target Center.
The loss brought an end to the Panthers’ 31-game winning streak and dropped them into the third-place game Saturday at noon at Concordia College in St. Paul.
So what went wrong for the Panthers?
“What went wrong was when they went to a triangle-and-two (defense) and went man-to-man on Carlie and Jade,” said coach John Schultz. “Others had trouble hitting their shots. Sauk Centre just kept on scoring. We got what we wanted for shots. They just wouldn’t fall.”
That’s for sure.
The Panthers shot 23.3 percent from two-point range (14-for-60) and just 14.8 percent on threes (4-for-27). They were outrebounded 41-38 and turned the ball over 16 times. It was a very rough, physical game in which not many fouls were called. Sauk Centre’s height advantage was evident.The Mainstreeters (27-4) scored the first four points of the game and never trailed. NRHEG played catch-up all night and at times did it well. They just couldn’t quite climb the hill.
Sauk Center was up 24-12 with two minutes left in the first half, but the Panthers cut it to 24-20 at halftime on baskets by Carlie Wagner, Raelin Schue and Maddie Wagner.
The start of the second half was brutal for the Panthers, who didn’t score until 11 minutes remaining. By then it was 38-22. The closest the Panthers would get was 42-30 with 7:15 remaining.
The Panthers faced a Division I recruit for the second game in a row and this one fared better than Braham’s Rebekah Dahlman. Kaly Peschel, a 6-1 senior who signed with Iowa, had 18 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocks to lead a well-coached Sauk Centre crew.
Individually for NRHEG: Carlie Wagner 21 points, three rebounds, two steals, one block; Jade Schultz six points, four rebounds, one assist; Maddie Wagner five points, two rebounds; Schue four points, three rebounds; Tori Raimann three points, one rebound; Anna Schlaak nine rebounds, three blocks, one steal, one assist; Hannah Lundberg eight rebounds; Katie Cole one rebound, one block.
The Panthers play Pequot Lakes (20-12) in the third-place game.