By Brenda Erdahl
Sports Editor
The Maple Lake girls basketball team played its best half of the season in a 72-43 loss to the Holdingford Huskers, Thursday, Jan. 25 at home.
The Huskers came into the game undefeated in Central Minnesota Conference play and dominated from the get-go, but the Irish played with emotion and intensity from start to finish, Maple Lake Head Coach Adam Ronnenberg said.
Thursday’s rout was the first in a pair of back-to-back games for the Irish against two tough teams. Friday, Jan. 26, sent the Irish on the road to Braham where they faced a team with the best record to date in Section 5A. “It was one of those games we would like to move on from as soon as possible,” Coach Ronnenberg said. The Irish fell 60-20.
Maple Lake 43, Holdingford 72
The Huskers jumped to a quick 21-11 lead, but the Irish responded with some full court pressure to go on an 8-0 run and cut the lead to just two. Maple Lake handled the ball and knocked down some big shots to keep the game close through the first half. At the break, the Irish trailed by seven (26-33).
Holdingford ramped up the pressure and pulled away in the second half despite Maple Lake’s best effort. That effort led to Avery Lee scoring a career high 16 points. The other high scorer, Tessa Pribyl, battled her way to seven points and seven rebounds. As a team, the Irish shot a season high 37 percent from the floor.
“It was so great to see our girls play at this level,” Ronnenberg said. “Our intensity on defense and ability to take care of the ball on offense led to our best performance in a half this season.”
Maple Lake 20, Braham 60
The Irish went into Friday’s game against Braham tired after facing a tough Holdingford the night before and were quickly stifled by Brahams defensive pressure. The home team used both zone and man-to-man full court pressure that the Irish struggled to find an answer for. Braham attempted 70 shots to Maple’s 35. The Irish were also plagued by turnovers. Maple Lake gave up the ball 34 times and the Bombers scored 29 points off those turnovers.
“We knew the task would be tall playing on back-to-back nights,” Coach Ronnenberg said. “It is good to see section opponents and there are always things we can learn from it.”
Up next
The Irish hosted Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Tuesday, Jan. 30. Results were not available at press time. On Friday, Feb. 2 the girls travel to Royalton for a 7 p.m. contest.