At a recent home game head coach T.J. Super goes over offensive and defensive strategy with his team. The girls won their first two play-off games but fell to Mountain Iron-Buhl 54-35 on Wednesday, March 7. The Vikings led that contest 30-26 at half. MIB will face Barnum in the Section 7A finals to see who will go to state. A wrap-up of the final game and season will be in next week’s newspaper.
The Vikings continued their stellar play in the Section 7A playoffs, advancing to the semifinals on Wednesday, March 7 against Mountain Iron-Buhl.
Deschampe sets scoring record in first playoff game
Ashley Deschampe has always been good at scoring points, but never better than March 1 in Esko when the CCHS girls’ team met the Carlton Bulldogs in the second round of the Section 7A playoffs. CCHS got a bye in the first round while Carlton defeated Fond du Lac 73-11 in the opening round of section play to earn the right to face the Vikings.
Deschampe was all but automatic as she scored 44 points, going 7-10 from behind the 3-point line as she led the Vikings to an 84-64 win over the Carlton Bulldogs.
Ashley was also 9-10 from the free throw line and had 5 assists for the game.
As well as Deschampe played, eighth grade center Lily Gruber-Schulz also had a huge night for the Vikings. Gruber-Schulz scored 19 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had 5 blocked shots on the night.
Three players scored 6 points each for the Vikings, Bekah Laky, Theresa Morrin, and Leah Utities.
The Vikings advanced to the Saturday, March 3 quarterfinal game against Cromwell. The game was played at Duluth Denfeld. Cromwell beat McGregor 54-51 on Thursday their record is now 17-8.
Vikings continue play-off advance with defeat of Cardinals
With 5:40 to go in the game, the Vikings held a tenuous 31-28 lead over a scrappy Cromwell Cardinal team in the Section 7A quarterfinal game played at Denfeld High school.
Head Coach T.J. Super inserted senior forward Bekah Laky back into the line-up and Laky scored her first 2 points of the game. Laky, who had 4 fouls when she went back onto the floor, had been saddled with foul problems all night; she finished with 7 points for the evening and Ashley Deschampe did what Ashley does, scoring about 15 points in the next three minutes to put the game away for the Vikings.
With two victories over the Cardinals earlier in the year, by 11 and 12 points, the Vikings knew they could beat this team. They started out the game strong, going up 22-10 in the first 10 minutes of play. But foul problems and ragged play haunted the Vikings, and the gritty Cardinals, behind some clutch 3-point shooting, pulled back and eventually took a 3-point lead into halftime.
The second half saw the Vikings take a lead of 1-7 points and dominate play, but they couldn’t pull away and failed to convert on many of their shots, including lay-ups. Fans were on the edge of their seats until the Vikings’ final 18-2 run that sealed the 69-51 victory for the Vikings.
For the game Ashley Deschampe scored a team-high 34 points, 24 coming in the second half. Coach Super said, “To go along with her 34 points, Deschampe totaled 8 assists and 6 steals as she really controlled the game for the Vikings.”
But, Deschampe had plenty of help said Super.
“Junior Theresa Morrin played like a beast, adding a double-double, with 14 points and 13 boards, while fellow junior Leah Utities added 10 rebounds and 8th grader Lily Gruber-Schulz chipped in another double-figure rebound night with 12. Sophomore Breana Peterson chipped in 8 big points and senior Bekah Laky, playing through foul trouble, added 7 points,” said Super.
Sophomore Jessica Berg-Collman also added valuable minutes off of the bench for the Vikings, playing good defense and scoring 4 points.
The Vikings record is now 18-8 as they head into their semi-final game against long-time nemesis Mountain Iron-Buhl. The game was played at press time on Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. in the Romano gymnasium on the campus of University of Minnesota Duluth for the right to go to the Section Championship game.
Leave a Reply