by Scott DCamp
Sports Editor
The Northland Community and Technical College women’s basketball team dropped a home non-conference game against Concordia College’s junior varsity team to open the week, before bouncing back with a dominant win over MCAC North rival Minnesota North College – Vermilion Saturday afternoon.
The Pioneers led 21-15 after a fast-paced opening quarter was in the books Monday night against the Cobbers. The Pioneers added to their lead in the second quarter and took a 35-27 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Cobbers battled back in the third, outscoring the Pioneers 23-15 to tie the game at 50-50 through three quarters of play.
The Cobbers took their first lead of the night 24 seconds into the fourth quarter. From there, it was a back and forth ballgame with four lead changes and six ties. The Cobbers ended the game on a 6-4 run to take the 69-67 win over the Pioneers.
“This was a great challenge for us at this point in the season,” said Northland Head Coach Shannon Nelson. “We needed to play a team that had a strong inside presence and could score from all positions. I think the biggest thing we learned is that we need all five players on the floor to be able to defend for 40 minutes. They were a team that could shoot and drive, so there wasn’t one way to defend anybody.
“We learned about the importance of execution the last five minutes of the game as well because we lost some of our sharpness and had some costly turnovers. This was the perfect game to show us some of the areas we need to focus on the next month and prepare us for postseason.”
Northland freshman Josie Peterson led all scorers with 25 points and 10 rebounds. Joining Peterson with a double-double was Jade Reese with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The Pioneers were back in action Saturday against the Ironhawks. The Pioneers started fast and never looked back, outscoring the Ironhawks in every quarter. The Pioneers led 21-7 after one quarter was in the books, 38-21 at the half and 61-32 through three quarters, before cruising to an 88-43 win.
“We were really happy with our execution of the game plan versus Vermilion, especially on the defensive end of the floor,” Nelson said. “We held their two leading scorers to just 13 field goal attempts, when they took 53 on Wednesday. I thought we played really well as a team, making the extra pass and finding each other in the zone. Teams are going to play us zone because we aren’t a perimeter shooting team and our athleticism creates matchup problems, so to see us attack the zone like we did was promising.”
Three Pioneers finished with double-doubles, led by 24 points and 11 boards from Kenzie Dahl, 20 points and 11 boards from Peterson, and 10 points and 12 rebounds from Faith Lilly.
“Three players with a double-double just shows our balance and the variety of weapons that we have on our team,” Nelson said. “Josie has been playing really well on both ends of the floor and Kenzie can hurt teams in so many ways.”
The Pioneers will be on the road this week with a three-game road trip.
“We have a big week with three road games in five days, capping off with Mesabi on Sunday who is also undefeated in the Northern Division right now,” Nelson said. “Itasca is playing well at home, so it’ll likely look very different than it did when we played them here on January 7th. Mesabi has only five players but all five can shoot, drive, and will post up. They cause matchup problems and are playing like they are on a mission right now.”
Pioneers hold steady at number two
Northland has held down the number two spot in the national rankings since Nov. 17. The Pioneers have a win over number one-ranked Minnesota West and a loss to number three Anoka-Ramsey.
Scoring
1 2 3 4 T
Concordia JV 15 12 23 19 69
Northland 21 14 15 17 67
Concordia JV MIN REB AST STL PF PTS
B. Christianson 21 1 3 2 1 7
P. Breidenbach 24 6 5 1 1 10
Clara-Mae Hager 18 0 1 2 4 3
Kennison Azure 26 3 1 1 1 6
Ellie Welch 32 6 1 2 3 23
Paige Evans 21 3 1 2 2 5
Nora Roney 19 7 4 1 0 11
Karleigh Rohloff 17 4 1 0 2 0
Cabryn Fritel 23 2 1 1 2 4
Totals – 32 18 12 16 69
Northland MIN REB AST STL PF PTS
Faith Lilly 33 3 1 1 3 8
B. Sarauer 33 5 3 0 4 2
Jade Reese 36 13 3 3 3 11
Josie Peterson 35 10 4 5 3 25
Kenzie Dahl 28 8 2 1 4 16
Lola Garrett 6 0 0 0 1 2
Ashlyn Nelson 12 0 1 1 0 0
Jerlyn Lunsetter 6 0 0 0 1 3
Sierra Westberg 12 3 2 0 1 0
Totals – 42 16 11 20 67
Scoring
1 2 3 4 T
MNC-Vermilion 8 13 11 11 43
Northland 21 17 23 27 88
MNC-Vermilion MIN REB AST STL PF PTS
Alyria Greene 32 7 1 2 4 4
Trinity Bodie 30 10 1 0 3 6
Danita Gonzalez 18 1 0 0 5 8
Ny’Jai Wright 33 5 4 3 4 6
Kye Clater 12 2 0 0 2 3
Brooklyn Hager 15 3 2 0 0 2
Mariah Harris 17 3 0 0 4 0
Heavynn Eagle 11 2 0 0 1 0
Ruth Wandulu 23 4 3 0 1 10
Aiden Ramos 9 1 0 0 1 4
Totals – 41 11 5 25 43
Northland MIN REB AST STL PF PTS
Faith Lilly 22 12 2 1 2 10
B. Sarauer 28 6 4 2 0 3
Jade Reese 30 3 0 0 3 12
Josie Peterson 28 11 6 7 3 20
Kenzie Dahl 26 11 1 3 1 24
Lola Garrett 17 5 2 0 0 2
Danika Gustafson 5 3 0 1 0 2
Ashlyn Nelson 20 1 1 1 1 3
Jerlyn Lunsetter 7 1 0 0 1 2
Sierra Westberg 17 5 1 1 1 10
Totals – 59 17 16 12 88
MCAC North
Division Overall
W L W L
Northland CTC 5 0 15 4
Mesabi Range 4 0 7 6
MNC-Itasca 3 3 9 14
Vermilion CC 3 4 10 13
Central Lakes 1 5 5 14
Rainy River CC 0 6 2 16
MCAC South
Division Overall
W L W L
Minnesota West 6 0 17 5
Anoka-Ramsey 5 1 17 4
Ridgewater 3 3 9 13
St. Cloud 2 3 12 8
M State 1 5 7 13
Riverland 0 5 0 16