Above: Using her great leg speed, Molly Zafft split two Nashwauk Keewatin defenders on her way to the basket for two points in a game played at home on Friday, December 2. Left: Senior guard Ashley Deschampe wheels around the Nashwauk Keewatin defenders to score two points. Deschampe is averaging about 23 points a game over the team’s first two games and is on pace to become Cook County’s all-time scoring leader this year.
It wasn’t pretty, but the Cook County girls’ basketball team shook off first game jitters and beat the Nashwauk-Keewatin Spartans 53-33 on Friday, December 2 at home.
The Vikings got off to a good start, winning the tip-off, which went to senior Ashley Deschampe. Deschampe hit sophomore Breana Peterson mid-stride with a pretty pass as she cut to the basket for a lay-up and the Viking lead 2-0.
After a bucket by the Spartans, the score stayed knotted at 2-2 for a long while as neither team could hold onto the rock. Deschampe finally snuck through the lane for a lay-up and the Vikings led 4-2 before each team fumbled the ball in a game marred by missed passes and sloppy ball handling. The Vikings finally generated some offense and went on a 14-3 run midway through the first half. They went into the locker room up 29-14. After a ragged first half of play, Deschampe and Peterson led the Vikings at the break with 7 points each.
The second half mirrored the first half as the Vikings would play well for stretches and then lose their concentration for stretches. Still, they had too much firepower for the Spartans, and good overall team defense limited the Spartans’ offense.
Ashley Deschampe led all scorers with 20 points, including 4 of her signature threes. Peterson, junior Theresa Morrin and sophomore Jessica Berg- Collman scored 7 points each. Senior Bekah Laky and junior Katlynn Linnell scored 5 apiece and senior Molly Zafft scored 2 points in a game where she struggled to find her rhythm on offense.
Head Coach T. J. Super said his team is trying to find its identity after losing star players Brea Boomer and Ailee Larsen to graduation.
But, he noted, it was the first game of the season. “After watching the tape, we were close to doing a lot of things right. We just didn’t execute all the way through. Often, we’d do 90 percent of a play right or have three girls running the court in the right lanes or have 4 girls boxing out, but it was the errors of the girls that didn’t execute that led to miscues by the whole team. We have couple of players that have played a lot, but for the most part we’re young.
“We have to work through those mistakes, as long as we learn from them,” said Super.
Super said Deschampe “played okay offensively and Jessica Berg-Collman stepped it up in a big way off the bench. I think she only sat about 4 minutes of the whole game.”
And he summed up his team’s play this way: “It wasn’t the best game, by any means, but it was a win in our first game.”
Vikings win nail-biter over South Range
The Cook County girl’s basketball team proved two things last Tuesday night when they played South Ridge at South Ridge. One, they have to execute better (communicate better) and two, they can win a close game on an opponent’s floor, no easy feat for a young team.
In a game that saw both teams fill up the basket, South Ridge players hit six 3-pointers and the Vikings hit eight 3-pointers.
South Ridge tested the Vikings’ will the entire night, as the Vikings couldn’t get any breathing room. Both teams lost the ball to each other numerous times and both teams converted easy baskets in a pell-mell affair that had the crowd rocking.
And while South Ridge didn’t back down, the Vikings showed their mettle by taking a 33-31 lead into halftime and outscoring their opponents by one point in the second half to take a hard earned 73-70 win.
One more of those threepoint bombs by South Ridge and the game would have gone into overtime.
Ashley Deschampe led the Vikings in scoring, with 22 points, including three 3-pointers. Theresa Morrin chipped in 15 points while Bekah Laky netted 13 and Jessica Berg- Collman hit for 12 points. Like Deschampe, Berg-Collman hit three 3-pointers; Laky and Morrin also had one 3 pointer in the high-scoring game. Molly Zafft with 4 points, Kaitlynn Linnell with 3 points, and Leah Utities with 2 points scored the other Viking points.
Next up for the Vikings is a game against McGregor at McGregor this Friday night. The Vikings don’t have a home game until next year when they play Albrook on January 5 at 6:30 p.m. Until then Two Harbors, Esko, Moutain Iron-Buhl and Ely will test this young team on the road. It will be a lot of bus time, a lot of tired legs and a chance to get closer together as a team. It will be a storm of tough games and they might not win them all, but with this team their motto should be, “Bring on the storm”.
Leave a Reply