LAST GAME — Senior Sophie Stork and NRHEG Head Coach Onika Peterson. Right, activities director Dan Stork hugs his daughter, Sophie, after awarding the team medals. Below, Stork goes to the basket against LCWM at the Taylor Center in the Panther's 70-64 loss, Monday, March 7, 2022.
By ELI LUTGENS
Publisher/Editor
Nothing gold can stay. The NRHEG girls’ basketball season came to an end Monday night in Mankato, falling to Lake Crystal-Wellcome-Memorial, 70-64.
If LCWM didn’t start seven-for-seven from the three-point line. If Senior Sophie Stork had made two more threes. If the Panthers had rebounded better. If any of these things had happened, the story from Monday night might have been different.
The Knights scored the first nine points of the game before Stork ended the run with a layup in traffic.
Stork scored 10 of her team's first 16 points, but got in foul trouble early, picking up three first half fouls. The Panthers only had six first half fouls, but they were all on Stork and Junior Erin Jacobson. Foul trouble played a big part as Stork sat for the last minutes of the first half and had to play safe the rest of the way.
It wasn’t until the 3:19 mark in the second half before a Panther other than Stork or Jacobson picked up a foul. Jacobson eventually fouled out and Stork finished the game with four fouls.
After the hot start by the Knights, which saw them lead by as much as 15, the Panthers clawed back to go into halftime down 40-30.
In other games this season, the Panthers have come out flat in the first half and turned it on halftime.
Monday night, the girls really didn’t come out flat in the first half. The Knights, arguably, played a near perfect first half.
The second half start by the Panthers showed why they deserved to be in this game.
In a blink, the Panthers scored the first eight points of the second half. With a chance to take the lead, however, Stork missed one of her only three point attempts on the night.
The Knights answered quickly, however, opening up a 48-40 lead.
And then Stork answered, scoring seven straight Panther points, culminating with a three pointer with 11 minutes to play.
After a Knight turnover, the girls again failed to take the lead.
It was the closest they came the rest of the night.
The final ten minutes had a teeter-totter type effect which saw the Panthers down by three twice, by five twice, and by eight multiple times, before the Knights extended their lead to as much as 11 points with one minute to play. Stork scored five points in the last minute, but it wasn’t enough.
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NRHEG Head Coach Onika Peterson told her players to be proud of themselves after the game.
“You know at halftime we went in down by 10. It could have been really easy to roll over and just let it be a blowout, but they fought all second half, all game. They came out, showed a lot of heart, a lot of grit and went at it. They didn’t give up and didn’t roll over.”
Peterson said the Knight had some heavy hitters on offense.
“We tried to switch up our defenses as much as possible, trying to keep them on our toes. We had just put in a couple different defenses in the last couple days just to try and keep them guessing and I thought the girls worked extremely hard. For only having two days to learn both defenses, I thought they did a great job.”
At halftime what was the message to your players?
“Unfortunately for Belle Plaine, which has an old NRHEG coach, we saw them being up by 18. We talked about just don’t just give up, don’t roll over. Anything can happen. You gotta take chances and come out strong in the second half and they absolutely did that. Being down by 10 and cutting it to two. We were right there, we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
What was the impact of Stork getting in foul trouble early?
“Whenever one of your starters gets in foul trouble early you gotta change things up, you gotta adjust to it. You know we had kids who came in and stepped up. The fact that we kept it within 10 [going into halftime], that’s huge. We never want to get into foul trouble; we just sometimes do because of how physical and aggressive we play.
Sophie Stork is the only senior, what did you tell her after the game?
“Sophie’s been a part of our varsity since she was in 7th grade. I told her how proud I am of her. I’m proud of what she accomplished at NRHEG. I told her that we were gonna miss her next year. And I told her if she ever needs anything to give me a call. But she has to be very very proud of what she accomplished and the run that we made throughout the playoffs.”
This was Sophie’s last game to close out a career -
“She’s a competitor, that’s the one best thing about the group as a whole. They compete, they don’t quit, they never give up. They’re never just gonna let things lie. They’re gonna battle until the last buzzer goes. I’m very proud of her, and very, very proud of the team and what we’ve accomplished.”
Stork
After the game, Stork was asked what she was feeling after playing her final game.
“Hurt. It sucks. It flat out sucks.”
This was a tough Knights team, which you played earlier in the season, what did you do differently this time around?
“I think coming into it we had to play loose and be confident. We knew coming in that they were a very good and quick team, but that it wasn't impossible and we just had to work hard, which we did. There’s no question that we left it all on the floor. We just fell a little short.”
What did tonight, playing with your teammates, one last time, mean to you?
“It’s definitely special, the big court, the big lights. It gets the adrenaline going. And you know that I knew that it could be my last game and that I just had to give it my absolute all and that’s kind of what I tried to do. Be a leader for my team as the only senior.”
Stork, the lone senior, led the Panthers in scoring in her final game, finishing with 28 points.
Next year Stork has committed to play basketball and softball at Hamline University, where she will be studying Law.
NRHEG 52, WEM 51
For the first time in a long time, the NRHEG Girls Basketball team earned the right to play at MSU Mankato after an incredible 52-51 victory over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, Thursday night, March 3, 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 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 can only be guessed what speech coach 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 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 Jacobson on the ground, leading to an easy layup, which cut the 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,” coach 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.”
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.
NRHEG 67, Medford 50
Don't let the final score of 67-50 fool you, the NRHEG girls basketball team did not simply walk through Medford Tuesday night, March 1, in the opening round of the Subsection 2 playoffs.
A sloppy game, with more than 30 fouls between the two teams, saw momentum swing to the Panthers early after they opened up an early 12-0 lead.
On one particular sequence, Faith Nielsen was fouled on three consecutive possessions resulting in free throws each time.
The Panthers led 30-19 after a controversial foul call resulted in three free throw attempts from the Tiger’s with zeros showing on the clock.
In the second half, the Tigers clawed their way back to within five points.
However, a Stork three-pointer ended the Tiger run four minutes into the second half. The rest of the way the Panthers outscored the Tigers by a margin of roughly 3-2.
“Tonight was a great game,” coach Onika Peterson said. “We had an awesome home court advantage with such a fun student section. Medford is a good team with a couple of heavy hitters.”
As for the performance of her players, Peterson said she was happy with the overall communication and defense. “We’re still looking to work the ball on offense and have a little more patience.”
In the final home game of her career, Stork led the Panthers in scoring with 19 points, followed by Faith Nielsen and Erin Jacobson each with 14.
Also scoring for the Panthers were: Preslie Nielsen, 9, Sidney Schultz 8, Hallie Schultz 2, and Quinn VanMaldeghem 1.
Conclusion
The Panthers finished the year with 20 wins for the first time in six years, a feat which left no one shaking their head after a five win season in 2021.
The Panthers are coached by longtime head coach Onika Peterson, assisted by John Schultz, Miles Otstot, and the player managers are Taytum Smith-Vulcan and Chloe Stork.