Theresa Morrin goes up strong for a lay-up while Kaitlynn Linnell gets ready to rebound. Morrin, a junior, has been a bright spot for the Vikings as she has stepped up into a starting spot this season. Linnell, a sophomore, gives the team some height at center and is getting better with each game.
Last season the Cook County girls’ basketball team would just go out and blow teams off of the floor. Most of the time, anyway.
Not this year. Not yet, anyway.
This season there is lots of huffing and puffing but no one is being blown away, no matter how hard the kids play.
But then, this team is more like the Denver Broncos ‘football team. They like to keep their fans on the very edge of their seats and then, ho-hum, win the game. So far that strategy has worked as the Vikings upped their record to 3-0 after beating the McGregor Mercs 57-55 on Friday night, December 9 at McGregor.
It was the team’s second two-point win in a row. Head Coach T.J. Super said he loves his team’s effort and the results— if not every play they attempt to make.
“The Mercs have a young team led by their very good quick point guard Abby Hawkinson,” said Super.
“We started out sluggish and the Mercs jumped out to a quick 14-7 lead. They beat us down the court and scored on close, easy shots. We struggled to take care of the ball and turned it over 12 times in the first half. And when we were able to get the ball up the court we couldn’t even make lay-up, going 4-27 for 14 percent shooting for the half. Meanwhile the Mercs closed out the half on a 4-0 run to take a 27-13 lead into the break,” said Super.
Senior forward Bekah Laky can always be depended on to make all of the little plays. She doesn’t always score a lot of points but will make the right pass or set the pick that’s needed. She’s there to grab an important rebound and always plays tough defense.
What transpired next was Tebowlike. The girls came out of the locker room with great intensity. They beat the Mercs to loose balls and started to score some easy points. With the score 32-17 Viking senior guard Ashley Deschampe took over and began pouring in the buckets, scoring 16 of the Vikings’ next 21 points and assisting on two other baskets.
“We pulled back into the game with stifling defense by Breanna Peterson and great rebounding by Bekah Laky, Theresa Morrin and Kaitlynn Linnell which led to fast break opportunities for Ashley and senior Molly Zafft,” said Super.
But as the Vikings climbed back into the game the Mercs fought back. The action went pell-mell up and down the court with the score remaining close. With the Vikings leading 53-52, Zafft hit a turnaround jumper to push the lead to 3.
The Mercs came right back and after being fouled, hit two free throws to close it back to 1 point. Again Deschampe took the ball down and tried to score, but was fouled in the act of shooting. She nailed both free throws after taking a hard foul, pushing the Vikings’ lead back to 3.
With 9 seconds left, the Mercs’ Gretchen Grams was fouled. She hit one free throw and missed the second, which was rebounded by Laky. She flipped the ball to Theresa Morrin who was fouled and Morrin missed both of her free throws giving the Mercs one last chance. But their young star, Hawkinson, just missed a 3-pointer as time expired on the clock.
Deschampe led the Vikings in scoring with 28 points and Zafft followed with 17, which all came in the second half. Linnell added 7 points and 6 boards, 5 of those boards were on the offensive side and while Laky failed to score she contributed 8 big boards and didn’t turn the ball over once. The Vikings only turned the ball over 5 times in the second half and Deschampe recorded a doubledouble with 28 points and 10 rebounds to go along with 5 assists and 4 steals. Tough time at Two Harbors
The Vikings traveled to Two Harbors on Tuesday, December 13 to face the Agates on the Agates’ home floor. And despite the Agates much larger school size, the Vikings were favored in this contest.
But, as Assistant Coach John Jacobsen said, “The game within the game was rebounding and the kids were out of position all night. We fouled too many times trying to get the rebound. The good news though is this can be fixed and we will work hard to fix it.”
The Vikings trailed 31-27 at halftime and just couldn’t close the gap, losing by 5 points, 57-52.
Once again Ashley Deschampe led the Vikings in scoring with 19 points. Theresa Morrin had 9, Jessica Berg- Collman 8, Bekah Laky 7, Molly Zafft 4, Kaitlynn Linnell 3, and Leah Utities followed her with 2.
At press time, the Vikings faced a tall order on Thursday, December 13 when they traveled to Esko to face the highly rated Eskimos. Esko is led by 6’8” Savanah Trapp who is being recruited nationwide by Division 1 schools. The junior center also has lots of help around her and the Vikings will have to be at the top of their game to be close in this contest.
Esko is a 3A school and CCHS is a 1A school so the two teams won’t meet during the play-offs.
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