MVL topples McLeod West

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM - When McLeod West's Melissa Benson buried a three-point shot with 4:13 left in the second quarter, it pulled the Falcons to within 18-13 of the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers.

But Benson's points would be the last that the Falcons would score for 13 minutes and 47 seconds as MVL ran off 21 straight points to defeat McLeod West 44-25 Monday night in Tomahawk Conference girls basketball.

Jessica Merseth led MVL (10-0; 11-3) with 15 points. Leah Morgan and Emily Buck each added nine points.

Steph Todd matched Merseth for game-high honors with 15 including 11 of her team's 12 fourth quarter points.

MVL remains in Tomahawk Conference action tonight when they host Wabasso in a huge conference match-up.

"I thought that we played a nice game," said coach Dave Biedenbender. "We only had 11 turnovers; it wasn't a real up-and-down fast break type of game. But we did what we had to do to beat them a second time over the course of four days (MVL beat McLeod West 52-26 on Friday). We played well enough to win and well enough to get all 12 of our players in the game and get them some good, solid playing time tonight."

MVL would start out sluggish in the contest, holding a 7-3 lead on a Jule Dzwonkowski basket off a steal by Angie Unke and gradually increase that to a 11-6 margin on a Jessica Merseth basket to end the first quarter.

"We didn't have school today and we played them last Friday," Biedenbender said. "Now we come into the game with not a lot of fans here and that made it tougher than (overlooking McLeod West) because of the margin that we beat them the first game. We knew that McLeod West is a good, strong team so we knew that the effort had to be there."

And the effort was there not only for MVL but also McLeod West who battled the Chargers despite their nine second quarter turnovers. Steph Todd's basket with 5:30 cut the MVL lead to 14-10 prior to the Chargers Leah Morgan and Emily Buck canning baskets for an 18-10 lead.

That set up Benson's 3-ball that kept McLeod West (4-5;5-8) close midway through that second quarter.

But Merseth's putback hoop and two free throws from the 5-foot-11 junior plus a free throw from Danielle Hammerschmidt lifted MVL to a 23-13 halftime lead.

"We went in at halftime and I told the girls that we had a sluggish first half," Biedenbender said. "We wanted to pick up our intensity, especially on defense and see if we can really take it to them with the defense and get some scores off of that."

Six McLeod West turnovers resulted in six Charger points. Merseth and Rachel Olson were recipients of baskets off of turnovers and Morgan's three-point shot from the wing saw MVL holding a 34-13 lead with 3:14 left in the third quarter.

McLeod West was 0-for-7 from the field in that quarter that ended with Buck sinking two free throws with :36 left for a 37-13 lead.

Morgan's jumper off a feed from Merseth saw the Chargers holding a 39-13 lead before Steph Todd broke the scoring drought with a basket with two minutes gone in the fourth quarter.

"You cannot quarrel with the kind of defense that we played tonight, especially in that span<: Biedenbender said. "I don't mean to disrespect McLeod West but I think that we could get a little bit of a rest tonight for our starters. We wanted to work on the defense and pick up the intensity - the same intensity that we will need against the second place Wabasso Rabbits (tonight)"

MVL also won the "B" game 54-12. Ruth Olson netted 12 and Kelsey Black 10 for MVL.