Tonight at the Minnewaska Area High School, the Hancock Lady Owls won their 24th game of the season with a hard-earned 55-45 win over the Battle Lake Battlers for the Section 5A championship. It is the Lady Owls second trip to "State" under Coach Jodi Holleman, as they went to state in 2002.
They will now face Chisolm (23-5) in the Class A state quarterfinals on Wednesday (March 14) at 8:00pm at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota Campus. Chisolm has had a solid playoff run. One of their five losses was to Barnum by 30 points (71-41) on January 5th. Barnum was knocked out of the playoffs by Bigfork, who was beaten tonight 57-49 by Chisolm for the Section 7A Championship.
Chisolm plays in a very tough Iron Range Conference that includes 3A power Hibbing (25-4), as well as 2A schools Virginia, International Falls, Greenway, and Eveleth-Gilbert. Hibbing throttled Chisolm on February 22nd 73-32 in the regular season finale for both teams. Chisolm beat the other teams in that conference to end with a league record of 6-1 this season. The 2A schools in that conference are not particularly impressive, except for Eveleth-Gilbert, who finished the season 20-9 and Sub-Section 7AA-2 Runners-up.
Last season, Chisolm finished 19-6, but most noticeable was there 0-1 record in the Section 7A playoffs. They were upset by a 14-10 Ely team in the sub-section quarterfinals. (Ouch!) Ely then lost in the next round to Tower-Soudan. Tower-Soudan then lost in the sub-section final to Wrenshall. Wrenshall was then soundly defeated by Barnum 53-25 in the Section 7A Final. Barnum went on to place 3rd in the Class A state tournament, beating Ada-Borup 55-50 in the third-place game.
Interestingly, Chisolm lost 69-47 to Parkers Prairie in a Holiday Tournament (at Hibbing) on December 30, 2005. The Lady Owls defeated Parkers Prairie 67-59 on December 8, 2005. So had the Lady Owls played Chisolm last season, they most likely would have soundly beaten them. Year-to-year, everything changes, and the way Chisolm has played in their Section 7A playoffs, they will be a formidable opponent for the Lady Owls.
This season, Chisolm met Parkers Prairie once again in a Holiday tournament (at Hibbing) on December 27, 2006. Parkers Prairie lost that game 51-26. The Lady Owls played Parkers on January 22, 2007, and won 72-42 in one of their best-played games of the season. On paper, they appear about even, with Chisolm perhaps having a more solid defensive game, and the Lady Owls having a better ability to light up the scoreboard. Chisolm averages 54 points on offense, while giving up an average of 43 points per game. The Lady Owls average 63 points per game on offense while giving up an average of 46 points per game. Statistics aside, the Lady Owls play a very solid game on both ends of the floor. Their trapping press can wreak havoc on guards of any talent level. They will take a great amount of momentum into the state playoffs and give Section 5A teams much to cheer for next week.
Ponder this one: in their section opener last week, a sub-section quarterfinal game, Chisolm barely won 53-52 over Cherry, who finished 10-14.
In the preceding game next Wednesday night, the Springfield Tigers (21-7) will take on a very good, highly-ranked Ada-Borup (28-1) team, with tip-off at 6:00 at Williams Arena. After they beat Chisolm, the Lady Owls would take on the winner of the Springfield/Ada-Borup game on Friday at 2:00 in the semi-finals.
In the section final game against Battle Lake, the Lady Owls had an answer for everything the Battlers threw their way. The first four minutes of the game were very tense, with the Battlers holding the lead until the 15:20 mark when Bree Holleman grabbed an offensive rebound in the paint and dropped it in for a 6-5 lead.
At the 12:44 mark, Jenny Noordmans got in on the action when she took a great assist from Tara Thielke and layed it in for her first bucket of the game. She followed that a minute later with a spin move around the lane against the Battlers defense to give the Lady Owls a 12-8 lead.
After Holleman came in along the baseline with a backdoor layup to make it 14-10, Tara Thielke snapped the cords from downtown for a three that made it a three possession game, 17-10, with 10:00 left before halftime.
The Lady Owls stretched the lead out with two free throws from Holleman and another trey by Thielke.
With 3:32 left before the first buzzer, Thielke drove the lane, slicing the Battler defense, and made it a 29-13 lead.
The Battlers broke a 10-0 Lady Owls' run with two buckets before halftime, trailing 29-17.
The second half brought another terrific display of offense and defense by the Lady Owls. Stacie Cunningham, Holleman, and Thielke all hit tough shots with driving layups to keep the Battler defense from clamping down hard on the arc.
The Lady Owls lead stretched out as much as 46-31 with 7:45 left. The Battlers did not go away, but nine points was the closest they would get.
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