Prior to tip-off, the team spent time getting words of wisdom and encouragement from Art Durkee, a long-time UM-Morris Cougars and Hancock Owls fan who brought some kind of magic to the evening. Throughout the game, he regularly chanted "offense, offense" whenever the Chisolm fans would chant "defense, defense." I couldn't have done it better myself.
For the first time since 1997, the Lady Owls basketball team is Final-Four bound, winning their state quarterfinal game in a convincing manner over the 6th-ranked Chisolm Bluestreaks tonight at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion.
In 2002, during their first "State" trip under Coach Jodi Holleman, the Lady Owls fell to Kittson County Central in a state quarterfinal match held at Concordia College in Moorhead.
The Lady Owls jumped in front 7-0 in the first three minutes of play. Chelsea Voorhees hit a paint shot, Bree Holleman drained a three pointer, and Jenny Noordmans hit a mid-range shot for their first buckets of the game.
Noordmans continued her strong play with a drive in the lane with two defenders on her, making it 9-3 with 12:55 on the clock. She hit her third field goal of the game, this time in the paint, with a couple two-for-two performances at the charity strip by Holleman wrapped around that. Holleman penetrated the lane with a shot off the glass to make it 17-10, and Tara Thielke hit two of three free throws and a paint shot to put the Lady Owls up 21-10 with 6:25 left before halftime.
After leading 21-13, they then went on an 11-2 run to blow the game open at halftime with a 32-15 lead going into the locker room. The Lady Owls used excellent patience and shot selection the entire first half.
At halftime, Coach Holleman stressed to the team not to play "not to lose" basketball, and to make sure they won the second half of play as well.
Everything continued going the Lady Owls' way in the second half, as they wore down the stellar guards from Chisolm with a suffocating man-to-man defense.
No let-down was in sight as they stole the Bluestreaks' first possession on their way to a 9-0 scoring spurt to begin the second half, with Thielke and Holleman both draining three pointers to push their lead to 39-15.
After Lindsie Cunningham's two-for-two performance at the free throw line made it 44-24 with under eight minutes to go, Hannah Newhouse and Kelsey Olson checked in over the next two minutes to begin relieving other starters on the floor.
The Bluestreaks would get no closer than a 20-point disadvantage as the game wound down. Coach Holleman subbed in numerous players off her bench as the state tournament experience was shared down the lineup.
The Lady Owls now face number-one ranked Ada Borup (29-1) in the Class A semi-finals on Friday at 2:00pm at the Target Center. The Cougars, out of Section 6A, knocked Springfield (21-8, Section 2A) out of the tournament with a 61-44 quarterfinal win. They will have their hands full attempting to slow the Lady Owls' offense while putting up points of their own against a swarming fullcourt press.
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