Mountain Iron-Buhl traveled to Heritage Christian Academy in Maple Grove Friday night and came away with a 78-71 win. Bottom line: The Rangers played 10 girls, Heritage mostly 6. MIB wore Heritage down a little bit, pulled away to a 10-point halftime lead and maintained a 10-15 point lead through most of the second half.
8 of the 1st 11 scores resulted in a lead change and Heritage led 12-11 after just 4 minutes as Katie Smith and Kirsten Robbins each scored twice. At that point there were 5 FG and 9 turnovers. Heritage kept the pedal to the metal and now Kaitlin Jones scored twice and Heritage had their largest lead of the night at 23-16 at 9:30. Now there were 12 FG and 13 turnovers.
MIB tied it up at 27, but it was still 35-31 Heritage at 4 minutes. But, by this time MIB's starters had all had a blow or two, while Heritage's, well, not so much. And MIB closed the 1st half with a 14-0 run--actually with mostly its 2nd string on the floor--to lead 45-35. 5-8 junior Lauren Maki scored 3 times off the bench, twice in transition and once of the offensive glass. And, Hali Savela, a 5-7 8th grader, also coming off the bench, scored on a dribble drive and a 3. A 3 by 8th grader Jordan Zubich at about 20 seconds was the coup de grace.
At the half, MIB was shooting out the lights--16-of-29 and 5-of-9 3s--and they had scored 15 points off Heritage turnovers. Heritage shot 16-of-37 and won the battle off the glass 8-2 but there were those turnovers, They, too, had scored a dozen off MIB turnovers, but they were 0-for-7 from downtown.
In the 2nd half, Heritage got within 52-47, but MIB quickly ran it back up to 68-53. Heritage finally got within 76-71 but that was at 46 seconds. In the 2nd, MIB again shot well at 10-of-21 while for Heritage at 11-of-25 was better but not good enough to come back from 10 down. Heritage scored 13 2nd chance points, MIB 5, and the 2 teams scored 49 points off of turnovers. Both coaches lamented the turnovers after the game. Most of MIB's, I thought, came on careless passes, Heritage's came from trying to dribble the ball in traffic. MIB's busy hands got a bunch of deflections and steals, and also a lot of reaching fouls. The officials called it pretty close and neither team ever gave a though to adjusting their hand play as a result.
The star of the 1st half was Robbins, who made 4-of-9 shots and had 7 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals but also 6 turnovers. The star of the 2nd half was Jordan Allen, also of Heritage, with 7 points, 4 boards and an assist. Robbins finished with 20 points, 9 boards, 3 assists and 5 steals but 8 turnovers. Allen had 14 points, 6 boards and 3 assists. Guard Taylor Schuck finished with 21 points, many of them after Robbins had fouled out, with one rebound, one assist, 3 steals and 5 turnovers.
But, MIB overwhelmed Heritage with numbers. It had too many sets offhand and legs. In the 1st half, their top player was senior guard Miah Gellerstedt with 8 points, a rebound, 2 assists, a steal and a block. In the 2nd, I liked freshman guard Sage Ganyo with 6 points, 4 boards, an assist and a steal, but 4 turnovers. For the game, Sage Ganyo had 14 points, 5 boards. Sophomore Ava Butler had 14 points, 2 boards and 2 assists. The 8th grader Zubich had 13 and 2 boards. Gellerstedt had 10 points. Maki had 10 points and 4 boards.
So, let me get this straight. MIB got 18 points from the senior class, none from the juniors (there are no juniors on the roster), 28 from the sophomores, 14 from the freshmen and 18 from the 8th graders. This is going to be a total buzzsaw in a couple of years. You heard it here first.
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