Chargers prevail in OT

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Following MVL's 44-38 overtime win over New Ulm Cathedral, Charger girl's basketball coach Dave Biedenbender said "It was one of those situations where you had to just sit back and hope that they could do it.

"And they did it."

Jessica Merseth's basket in overtime tied the game at 38-38 and Charger reserves Julie Dzwonkowski, Danielle Kramer and Gretta Nelson scored six straight points as the Chargers improved to to 17-1 in the Tomahawk Conference and 19-3 with the victory.

Merseth's 18 points led MVL, with Leah Morgan tossing in eight.

Kristin Beranek led Cathedral (10-11, 9-9) with 12 points. Tessa Hodapp and Cathy Boettger each collected nine points.

"Our girls were really fired up for this game," commented Cathedral head coach Mary Dengerud. "I thought that they left everything that they had on the floor tonight."

The Hounds, who led 21-15 at halftime thanks to a steal and basket by Boettger and a 3-ball from Liesl Genelin, saw that margin remain at six points at 27-21 on a Hodapp free throw and then swell moments later to 32-23 as Beranek hit a trey, her second in the quarter and third in the game, followed by a Hodapp basket off a feed from Boettger with 2:44 left in the third quarter.

But those would be the last Hound points of the quarter as MVL, ignited by a Merseth basket off a pass from Angie Unke, ran off six unanswered points to cut the lead to 32-29 on an Unke putback basket with four seconds left in the third.

Cathedral regained some momentum in the final quarter on a Hodapp basket and a Jessica Lewis' free throw for a 35-29 lead with 7:07 left in the game.

But then it was Merseth who canned a jumper with 5:30 left from the free-throw line that would jumpstart the MVL offense, minus Erin Czer who fouled out at the 6:42 mark of the fourth quarter. Nelson's free throw tied the game at 35-35 with 2:56 left.

Cathedral's Beranek and MVL's Morgan each sank a free throw in the final seconds to send the game into overtime.

"I don't know if (holding Cathedral to one point the final seven minutes) was anything that we changed up defensively," commented Biedenbender. "If anything, it was our intensity with which we were playing. We communicated better on the floor. I just sensed a groundswell of better effort by our girls."

"I think that we got a little tentative (in that fourth quarter)," said Dengerud. "I think that maybe we tried to slow up the game and our game is not to slow it up; when we did that, we got tentative."

Both teams appeared nervous in the first quarter as MVL hit on only 2 of 13 shots from the field while Cathedral hit on 1 of 10 field goal attempts as the Chargers, spurred by a 5-0 run, took a 7-3 lead into the second quarter.

"I told our girls to keep playing defense and your shots will fall," Denegrud said. "And I think that getting into our defense helped our offense."

The Hounds' defense held MVL to a 1-for-6 shooting early in the second quarter while the Hounds caught fire, hitting 4-of-6 in that same span. Beranek's trey and baskets by Boettger and Hodapp, both off passes from Genelin, lifted Cathedral to a 12-8 lead with 5:32 remaining in the first half.

"Kristin is a fine point guard; she hustles all over the court and does a nice job for us," said Dengerud. "I think that this game is a big boost for us; we played really well and that is what we wanted to do going into tournament time."

"We told Jessie (Merseth) that she had to step up in that fourth quarter," commented Biedenbender. "She took over the game, made some big shots for us as did Julie (Dzwonkowski) stepping up in the overtime and then a big hoop at the end just did a great job for us."

MVL also won the B-squad game 62-23. Emily Buck led MVL with 11 while Melissa Kraus paced CHS with eight.

MVL 7-8-14-7-8--44

CHS 3-18-11-4-2--38

MVL (44): Merseth 18, Morgan 8, Czer 4, Unke 4, Nelson 4, Dzwonkowski 3, Kramer 3.

CHS (38): Beranek 12, Hodapp 9, Boettger 9, Genelin 5, Gieseke 2, Lewis 1.