Trace McQuatters looked to shoot in the Vikings’ last home game. The 5’3” junior guard scored 2 points in the Vikings’ close loss to highly ranked McGregor.
The young Viking girls’ basketball team gave the 4-1 McGregor Mercuries a run for their money last Friday night, December 20, in McGregor, losing 39-30.
Last year McGregor (25-4) advanced to the section 7A final four and this year they return most of those starters from that team. Senior Abby Hawkinson, who scored 16 points against the Vikings, leads the Mercs. They also start three other seniors and a junior while the Vikings often start two freshmen, two sophomores, and one senior.
“We were down 29-31 with two minutes to play and we had two chances to tie or to take the lead but we just couldn’t score,” said Head Coach Mitch Dorr. “After that McGregor went on an 8-1 run and that was the ballgame.”
“We knew that McGregor likes to run, so when they rebounded a miss our girls sprinted back to stop their transition game. We kept Abbey [Hawkinson] on the bench for much of the night because Lily [Gruber-Schulz] would go right at her and Hawkinson would foul her. The last two minutes Abbey came back in and there wasn’t much that we could do to keep her from scoring.
“McGregor also clamped down on Lily and Breana [Peterson] the last two minutes of the game. They weren’t going to let them score and our other players just couldn’t create enough good shots to keep us in the game. We need to find one or two more girls who can score some points for us.
“Overall I was extremely, extremely, pleased with the effort our girls gave. McGregor is a 3½-hour bus ride for our kids. It’s the farthest that we travel and it’s a tough trip but our girls got off the bus and played hard right to the end,” Dorr said.
For the night Gruber-Schulz led the Vikings with 12 points and Breana Peterson scored 11 points. Three other Vikings, Trace McQuatters, Suzy Burton, and Emily Jacobsen, each scored 2 points, and Liz O’Phelan scored 1 point.
The Vikings won’t play again until after Christmas break. Their next game is January 3 at Esko. Their first home game of 2014 is January 10 against Barnum. The girls’ varsity takes the floor at 4:45 p.m.
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