CELEBRATION - The NRHEG Girls Basketball team celebrates after defeating WEM 52-51 during the second round of the 2022 Sub-Section 2 playoffs.
DOMINANT - The Panthers Sidney Schultz scores a basket against WEM Thursday night, March 3 at Mankato East high school. She finished as the second leading scorer with 21 points.
LAST GAME? - Senior Sophie Stork played like it might be her last game, leading the Panthers in scoring with 23 points in the one point victory over WEM.
By ELI LUTGENS
Publisher/Editor
For the first time in a long time, the NRHEG Girls Basketball team is returning to play at MSU Mankato Monday night at 7:45 p.m. against Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial after an incredible 52-51 victory over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Thursday night at Mankato East high school.
It’s always tough when the girls play WEM. Thursday night's game was no different.
With five seconds to go, down by two points, the Buccaneers appeared to have a wide open layup attempt when Senior Sophie Stork came from behind to stop the attempt, fouling out in the process.
After sinking the first free throw, the Buccaneers, as they did all night, recovered the offensive rebound and forcing a jump ball, with the possession arrow allowing them to retain possession.
With four seconds left, and the entire crowd on its feet, Faith Nielsen made the game clinching “tip”, sending the ball down the court as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
How did the Panthers get here?
It’s hard to beat anybody twice. The Buccaneers defeated the shorthanded Panthers the first time they played, but lost handily to them in a division clinching game a week ago Friday.
At no point in the first half did it appear like any team was going to run away with it.
The Panthers led by as much as seven points, but were answered by nine Buccaneer points midway through the first half, making the score 18-16 in favor of WEM.
Playing as if it might be her last game, Stork ended the Buccaneer run, driving the length of court to tie the game.
The Bucs scored five points on their next three possessions which included six offensive rebounds.
Stork answered again, cutting the lead to three after another tough drive to the basket.
A three pointer from Preslie Nielsen with 55 seconds left sent the game to halftime tied 23-23.
Second half
It’s unsure what speech NRHEG Head coach Onika Peterson gave her players at halftime but the girls came out of the locker room looking like a different team, playing another sport.
Resembling a quarterback wide-receiver duo, Stork hit Junior Sidney Schultz in stride on multiple football style passes leading to easy layups.
Schultz came out on fire in the second half, scoring 13 of the team’s first 15 points putting the Panthers ahead by 11.
The Bucs weren’t done.
Many second chance shots and offensive rebounds allowed the Buccaneers to keep the game close. With under five minutes to play, another offensive rebound by the Buccaneers followed a scramble for the ball which left Stork and Erin Jacobson on the ground, leading to an easy layup, which cut Panther lead to 44-42.
Over the next four minutes each time the Bucs scored, Stork answered, scoring the next seven Panther points, including a 3-pointer to put the Panthers up 51-48 with two minutes to play.
Another second chance bucket from the Bucs cut the lead to 51-50.
With under a minute to play, Stork showed incredible hustle, moving from one side of the court to the other securing a rebound and helping prevent another second chance opportunity for the Bucs. On the ensuing Panther possession, Schultz was fouled with 31 seconds left, sending her to the line for a one-and-one attempt.
With the crowd screaming, Schultz hit the first free throw and missed the second.
After another offensive rebound by the Bucs with 18 seconds left, Stork literally took the ball away from a Buccaneer shooter and was immediately fouled.
Stork missed her free throw, but hustled back on defense, preventing what looked like a wide open layup attempt, fouling out in the process.
After a missed free throw, and jump ball, Nielsen, made the game clinching “tip” sending the Buccaneer inbounds pass bouncing down the court as the final four seconds of the game ticked away.
A win’s a win
“It definitely wasn’t exactly how we drew it up, but you know what, a win’s a win,” NRHEG head coach Onika Peterson said. “We’re excited to get back to MSU. It's been quite a few years, so it will be nice to get up there to play. And now we gotta plan for Lake Crystal.”
All the girls had a big night, but whenever WEM looked like momentum was going in their favor it looked like Sophie or Sid stepped up to answer -
Peterson: “Sid and Sophie have been on our varsity since 7th and 8th grade. They have a ton of years of experience and you know for them, that’s what you’d expect to see. Right, they’ve been in how many games with how many tough minutes. It’s just fun to see everything culminating in this playoff run to get back to MSU. We had a couple kids that might not have played their best game, but that’s the best thing when you bring each other up and then still can get the win.”
Sophie Stork
Stork fouled out with four seconds left in the game, and had to watch as WEM had one last chance to steal the win.
“It definitely was a whirlwind of emotions, but I just had to believe in my teammates and know that they could pull it off and just cheer them on from the sideline,” Stork said.
At certain points it looked like you and Sidney were playing football out there. You obviously have great chemistry together. Where does that come from?
“I think that’s just me and Sidney. We’ve been best friends since we were little. We do a drill in practice that looks just like that and we know each other so well. We just expect it. We’re like the magnets that click, not the ones that separate. So we know and we read each other really well and we’re able to feed the ball to each other.”
Every time it looked like WEM was about to swing momentum you and Sidney had an answer -
“I think that we really just had to rely on our experience. We’ve both been on this team since 7th grade. This is my 6th year and her 5th. So we really just had to take a deep breath and be calm for the team and just bring us back in. We’re basically veterans of the team and that’s our job, is to keep it calm.”
Was it anywhere in the back of your mind that this might be your last game?
“It’s always there from round one of the playoffs. It’s something I try not to think about until it actually is over, because no matter what we have a chance. And fouling out with four seconds left I knew that’s not how I wanted to go out, but I still believed in my teammates to finish the game.”
Stats
On the night, Stork and Schultz combined for 44 of the Panther’s 52 points. With the win, the Panthers overall record climbs to 20-9, 13-3 within the conference. The Panthers were led in scoring by Stork with 23, followed by Schultz 21, Preslie Nielsen 3; Hallie Schultz 2; Jacobson 2; Faith Nielsen 1.
Up next: The Panthers play at 7:45 p.m. against LCWM at MSU Mankato.