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Panthers win sub-section crown

Lead Summary

For the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva girls’ basketball to claim their fourth Section 2AA South Sub-Section championship in five years, they would have to beat a team that defeated them twice in the regular season in Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.
Halfway through the Section 2AA South Sub-Section championship game Monday night, March 7 at Bresnan Arena in Mankato, it looked like the Panthers would suffer a third season setback when they trailed the Buccaneers 33-23.
The Panthers ran the floor and crashed the boards to perfection and with only 6:20 gone in the second half, the Panthers turned the 10-point halftime deficit into a 6-point lead and would hang on for the 55-52 win.
“We just talked about attacking the basket and cracking hard on the boards (at halftime),” said NRHEG coach Onika Peterson. “We had said that’s going to make or break us. We’ve got to make sure we’re holding them to one-chance shots and we’ve got to try to run the floor when we could.”
After hitting only three first half 3s, the Panthers started the second stanza draining four 3s by four different players to pull within one at 36-35. Maddie Wagner’s offensive putback gave NRHEG a 37-36 lead, the team’s first since they lead 15-13 with 5:20 left in the first half.
The rest of the game consisted of maintaining a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Marnie and Maddie Wagner drilled back-to-back 3s and Rachel Collins followed another putback basket as the Panthers led 53-48 with 6:40 remaining.
WEM moved to a half court trapping defense that seemed to rattle the Panthers and pulled within one at 53-52 in the final two minutes. Kayley Camerer connected on two big free throws with 1:15 left to put NRHEG up by 3.
NRHEG’s defense held strong in the final seconds as WEM’s final attempts at tying the game were off the mark and the Panthers got their win over the Buccaneers in their third try of the season.
“We knew we had to work on staying down low so (WEM) wouldn’t get it down to the post, because that was one of their key things last time and we knew who their shooters were so we kept track on that,” said NRHEG senior guard Hailey Schuller.
Maddie Wagner led the way with 13 points and Collins added 12 as the Panthers were 10-for-27 from 3-point range.
 
Section 2AA Championship 
Monday’s win advanced the Panthers to Friday’s Section 2AA championship game against defending section champion Norwood Young America back at Bresnan Arena. Like they did against WEM, the Panthers fell behind early, trailing by double digits at 20-8 with 5:35 left in the first half. Maddie Wagner scored the team’s final six points to pull within 30-24 at the break.
The Raiders continued to lead into the second and held a 50-41 advantage with ten minutes remaining. Marnie Wagner hit a pair of jumpers and sister Maddie drilled a 3 from the right wing as part of a 7-0 run to pull the Panthers within 50-48 with 5:50 left.
Norwood followed with five straight points to take a 55-48 lead and would go on to repeat as section champions with a 67-56 win.
The Wagner sisters each netted 20 points and Camerer and Collins both tallied eight.
NRHEG finishes a successful season with a 23-7 record. As disappointing as falling a game short of returning to state is, they have a lot to look forward to.
“We have three great seniors that worked their butt off and gave great leadership,” said Peterson. “On the bright side, we have five juniors that are coming back that put up huge minutes for us and we have four other sophomores that came off the bench, one who put up big minutes for us all season. We have a lot of talent coming back and coming up through the program so it’s exciting to see.”
 

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