
By Brenda Erdahl
Sports Editor
The Maple Lake girls basketball team suffered losses to Eden Valley-Watkins, Dassel-Cokato and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa last week.
Maple Lake 23, EV-W 42
The Irish faced the Eagles shorthanded and pressured had a difficult time finding easy scoring opportunities. The Irish trailed 7-27 by the break. Maple Lake turned their game around to win the second half 16-15, but still struggled to put the ball in the hoop, shooting just under 17 percent.
“EV-W was very physical and was able to push us around a little making it tough for us to find any rhythm. They are always so disciplined on both ends of the floor… Games like this show us how physical we need to be,” Coach Adam Ronnenberg said.
Maple Lake 36, D-C 68
The Irish came out strong, matching the intensity of the Chargers and after four minutes trailed by just two points. The Irish settled into their 2-3 zone and forced the Chargers to shoot from deep, where they connected on nine of 33 three-point attempts. The Irish battled but couldn’t break the lid of the basket for much of the remainder of the first half.
Aleigha Jensen scored a career high, 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“I was really proud of the way we started the game. Intensity, execution, and rebounding are areas we have struggled but I can see the progress. The more we can string together these moments the better we will become,” Ronnenberg said.
Maple Lake 37, BBE 71
The Irish shot better (37 percent), but it wasn’t enough to get past the physical Jaguars. Maple Lake busted out to a 7-5 lead early but couldn’t hold it.
“Maple Lake had been taking care of the basketball much better of late, but this being their 3rd game of the week (3rd in 4 days), the Irish fuel tanks were running low,” Ronnenberg said.
Tessa Pribyl nearly had her third double-double of the year with 16 points and 9 rebounds; 16 points ties her career high.
Up next
The Irish hosted Spectrum on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Results were not available at press time. On Friday, Feb. 23, the Irish host Breck at 7 p.m. and Monday, Feb. 26th is the start of the Section 5A tournament. Location is yet to be determined.