NRHEG girls complete impressive week with win at USC
PARADE OF POINTS — The Panthers’ Maddie Wagner scored a total of 52 points in two recent wins for the NRHEG girls' basketball team. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)
By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
The last time the NRHEG girls’ basketball team met Blooming Prairie, the Panthers were coming off a tough loss to St. Peter and struggled to score while falling 45-31. This time was different.
The Panthers jumped on top early at Blooming Prairie Tuesday, Jan. 12 and cruised to a 61-41 Gopher Conference victory. They followed with a 63-59 triumph at United South Central Friday, running their record to 12-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
NRHEG 61, Blooming Prairie 43
“Our offense ran much better than it did the first time around,” said NRHEG coach Onika Peterson.
Defensively, the Panthers struggled at times and got into some foul trouble. In the first half, 15 of the Blossoms’ 29 points were on free throws.
Blooming Prairie made 19 of 25 free throws for the night, but the Panthers countered by sinking 17 of 21.From the field, NRHEG was 16-for-38 on twos and 4-for-19 on threes, the Blossoms 9-for-33 and 2-for-9. The Panthers held a 35-21 edge in rebounding and had 10 turnovers to the Blossoms’ 19. The Panthers had 22 offensive rebounds.
Individually for NRHEG: Maddie Wagner 25 points, eight rebounds, six steals, two assists; Marnie Wagner nine points, 12 rebounds, six assists, one block; Rachel Collins nine points, five rebounds, four steals; Betsy Schoenrock eight points, two rebounds, two blocks; Hailey Schuller five points; Kayley Camerer three points, five rebounds, two steals; Emily Eder two points.
“Overall, it was a great team win,” said Peterson. “I was very proud of the girls for playing hard the whole way through.”
NRHEG 63, USC 59
The Panthers picked up a big Gopher Conference victory at Wells, handing the Rebels their third loss of the season against 11 wins.
“We tweaked our defense trying to shut down their big girls, (Shianne) Robertson and (Lauren) Allis,” said Peterson. “The girls worked very hard inside, but we struggled boxing out their bigs, which allowed them to score a lot of their points on second-chance shots.”
The Panthers made 14 of 29 two-point shots and 7 of 21 threes while USC hit 18 of 36 and 3 of 6. Both teams were 14-for-21 at the free-throw line. The Panthers had seven turnovers to only one for USC. The Rebels outrebounded the Panthers 34-19, including 19-9 offensively. USC blocked eight shots.
For the Panthers: Maddie Wagner 27 points, five rebounds, two assists; Marnie Wagner 18 points, four rebounds, two assists, one block; Schuller five points; Camerer five points, two assists; Collins four points, three rebounds, three assists; Eder two points, two rebounds; Schoenrock two points.
The NRHEG junior varsity won 29-23.