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February 6, 2000
MVL rolls past JWPBy JIM BASTIAN Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM -- Freshman Jessica Merseth tossed in a game-high 22 points as the Minnesota Valley Lutheran Chargers defeated Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 59-45 Saturday in nonconference girls basketball. The Chargers' Leah Morgan and Sarah Gronholz each added 16 as MVL ran their record to 14-4. JWP (13-3) was paced by 12 points from Heidi Johnson. "We are happy with the win," said Charger coach John Barenz. "We had three tough games this week and we set a goal to play them one at a time and win each one. We are happy that we reached that goal." But that goal was in doubt when the third quarter started as JWP, in second place in the Gopher Conference, scored the first four points of that quarter to assume a 34-26 lead. But that was when Merseth hit the first two of her 18 second half points, sparking a 14-0 spurt and changing an eight point JWP lead into a 40-34 MVL margin. Two Merseth baskets, which followed the Chargers hitting only two of their first nine shots to start the second half, preceded two Gronholz charity tosses and a Gronholz rebound basket that tied the game at 34-34. A Morgan basket off the third Bulldog turnover of the quarter lifted MVL to a 36-34 lead -- a lead that they would not lose the rest of the way. Two more Merseth baskets off passes from Gronholz increased the cushion to 40-34 before JWP would finally break the Charger run when Lindsay Wolff hit a trey witrh 1:25 left in the third quarter. Gretta Nelson's basket off a steal ended the third quarter and Merseth outscored JWP 8-2 to start the final quarter as MVL rolled to a 50-39 lead with 4:30 left in the game. "She (Merseth) got a lot of points off of second shots," commented Barenz. "She was able to position herself and get those boards. She is one who is able to shoot off-balance." The Charger defense also stepped it up. They allowed 30 first-half points to JWP but cut that in half, yielding only 15 points in the second half. "We did a couple of things defensively (in the second half)," said Barenz. "One, and I think that it has a lot to do with the mentality of our bench, they have to play with the same intensity that out starters do. I think that happened with Hannah Enter. We put her on the point. We pressured their point guard as hard as we could and then tried to make some steals off of that pressure." JWP had 12 second-half turnovers and had only five shots in the final quarter. MVL jumped to a 6-4 lead and then ran off 10 straight points for a 16-6 lead with 1:50 left when Gronholz, who scored six of those points, hit a put-back basket for that 10-point lead. But JWP came back, hitting a jumper and then consecutive treys by Jenny Roozen to cut the lead to 16-14 at the end of one quarter. The Dogs later erased a 20-16 MVL lead with a 14-2 run that saw them take a 30-22 lead as MVL hit only three of 13 shots from the field in that span. "I thought that we lost our momentum when our substitutions came in. They were not fully prepared to play like we want them to. It is not that they were not trying, they were trying hard. But they were not playing the way that we asked them to play," Barenz said. JWP won the B game, 42-11. Christine Schuh led MVL with four points. Julie Ziemke led JWP with 13. JWP 14 16 7 8--45 MVL 16 10 16 17--59 JWP (45): Johnson12, Roozen 8, Guse 8, Wolff 7, Priem 5, Westphal 3, Lund 2. MVL (59): Merseth 22, Morgan 16, Gronholz 16, Nelson 2, Madson 2, Enter 1.
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