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Caledonia’s Laquita Becker got all tangled up battling for a rebound with a St. Charles player.
(Photo by Charlie Warner)
By Daniel McGonigle
Argus Managing Editor
Defeat Lewiston
Against Lewiston the Caledonia Lady Warriors won 55-49.
“We started out great getting out to a nice comfortable lead by half time 30-18,” said head coach Scott Sorenson.
The coach said the key to the game was the team’s defensive play.
“We really played well defensively, as we were able to turn up the
pressure and take them out of what they wanted to do,” he said.
“The girls are just playing great defensive basketball, it is really
fun to watch.”
The coach has seen that when the team has the fire inside, they can do great things.
“We have the ability to play great, just need to want to, and they do
right now,” he said. “We came out in the second half and really
played well again, increasing our lead to as much as 20. Then we
had some break downs and they were able to get some good looks, to
close the game to within four points.”
It took a return to the simple aspects of the game for the team to pull it together.
“I was proud of how the girls went back to fundementals and pulled out
the win. We need to shoot better from the freethrow line, if we
want to make a run in the play-offs,” said Sorenson. “We had very
balanced scoring with Libby Augedahl, Cassie Gran and Aly Meyer all
having double figures. Defensively Megan King, Laquita Becker and
Sarah Colleran really stepped up, all three are simply doing what the
team needs to win ball games, night in and night out. Brianna
Vick played solid scoring eight points and playing great defense on
their bigger post players.”
Lewiston stats
Becker 2 points, King 6 points, Colleran 1 point, Gran 11 points, Meyer 10 points, Augedahl 17 points, Vick 8 points.
Versus St. Charles, Warriors win 69-39
de·sire To wish or long for; want.
They simply wanted it more.
“This was a game the girls really wanted to win, we played poorly and
were in a lot of foul trouble the first meeting and the girls wanted to
prove that they were much better than that,” said Sorenson.
“Also, we felt that they did not respect us and we wanted to send a
message for the upcoming play-offs in which we open with them.”
As was the case in the Lewiston game, solid defense, this time of the “shut-down” variety, was the key.
“The girls came out and just played what I like to call ‘shut down
defense.’ We jumped out to a 19-0 lead to start the game. The
girls were just amazing and it could possible be the best team
defensive game I have seen us play,” said Sorenson. “They simply
just got after it. I hope we can go out every game with this type
of attitude as we know from last year is that defense wins during
tournament time.”
Again the Warriors held their opponent to under 20 points in the first half of play.
“We lead 38-15 at halftime. It was a great game for us as it was senior/parent night and we had a big crowd.”
The reserves got to play a good portion of the second half.
“With about 15 minutes left in the second half our reserves went the
rest of the way, shutting them down just like we had done in the first
half,” said Sorenson. “We were able to get 10 of our 12 players
into the scoring column. Sarah Colleran was on fire from the
three point line hitting three in the first half. Our post play
was great with Cassie Gran scoring 11 of her 13 points in the first
half and Aly Meyer getting all 15 of her points in the second
half. That is just a tribute to our guards gettingthe ball to
them with great looks. Theresa Ellenz had some great high low
passes to Aly Meyer in the second half. On the night we shot
12-18 from the line, that is better production from the line, but we
feel we can be ever better as the tournament roles around.”
Scoring against St. Charles
Scoring: Becker 6, Sorenson 5, King 2, Colleran 13, Schuttemeier 2, Ellenz 2, Gran 13, Meyer 15, Augedahl 6, Vick 6
Record
“Our record now is 21-3, 17-2 in the conference,” Sorneson noted.
“We are still tied with Kingsland for the conference title.”
The Section 1AA East sub-section tournament will be held this Friday
and Saturday, Feb. 22-23 at the Rochester Community and Technical
College in Rochester.
Caledonia will square off against St. Charles as the number one seed in
their sub-section. The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb.
22.
The winner of that game will face off against the winner of the
LaCrescent vs. Wabasha-Kellogg game on Feb. 25 at 6:30 in the Arena.
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