Chargers defeat another adversaryMVL girls click, beat Cedar Mountain handily

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Every year, high school basketball teams face the task of meshing a group of players together and hope that the team will click early in the season.

On Thursday, the Minnesota Valley Lutheran girls basketball team looked like it has found its niche, defeating Cedar Mountain 65-37. The win was the second for the Chargers this week against a tough conference foe. MVL handed Buffalo Lake-Hector its second loss of the conference schedule Tuesday.

"This was the second straight game we came out and knew we were facing a great team," MVL coach Dave Biedenbender said. "Cedar Mountain is a very much improved team and they got a great future, and we knew that we had to be ready for a lot of aggressiveness on their part.

"We're just all super happy that we came out with the effort we did and the kind of win that we did," Biedenbender said.

For the second straight game, the Chargers controlled the boards, outrebounding the Cougars 32-18.

"That's one of our goals, obviously, I think, more this year than last year," Biedenbender said. "We have a good inside-outside game. Most of the teams we play, we have a height advantage against, and if our big girls and finish off their shots, we're going to be real successful."

Eva Voss led the Chargers with 14 points. Amanda Dettman and Kelsey Krohn scored 10. Katie Gewerth led the Cougars with 15 points.

The game was close early as Gewerth's buzzer-beater cut the MVL lead to 14-11 after one quarter. The Cougars took a 16-14 lead on Gewerth's 3-pointer, but MVL erased any hopes for a Cougar win with a 13-0 run in the second quarter.

"We made some defensive adjustments," Biedenbender said. "We started going more to our three-two defense and we started a little more trapping. The other adjustment we made was we said 'lets run our press offense like we know we can.'"

Back-to-back baskets by Briana Czer gave the Chargers a 25-16 lead and Karissa Kramer's basket made it 27-16. MVL led 30-20 at halftime.

"Even at halftime, we hadn't done a good job of getting a hand in their face all the time," Biedenbender said. "In the second half, I thought we made a more concerted effort to scramble more and always get a hand in their face."

The Charger defense held the Cougars to only six points in the third quarter and led 46-26 after three quarters.

Back-to-back baskets by Dettman in the fourth quarter put MVL up 52-26 and Kristen Patterson's basket made it 61-37. The Chargers forced 20 turnovers and committed 14. Czer led the Chargers with eight rebounds. She also scored seven points.

Cedar Mountain shot 27 percent from the field.

MVL (7-4, 5-2) is at McLeod West today and Cedar Mountain (7-3, 4-2) is at New Ulm Cathedral today.