Raiders overcome Greyhounds

BY JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Nicollet girls basketball coach Kevin Christenson described it best following the Raiders' 62-47 win over New Ulm Cathedral Monday night when he said it was a typical Cathedral-Nicollet game.

The Raiders raced to a 19-point lead early in the fourth quarter only to see the Hounds claw their way back to within five points with four minutes left in the game before running away with a 15-point win in non-conference girls basketball.

Alison Brandt led Nicollet (17-6) with a game-high 17 points with Beth Hendrycks adding 12 and Sarah Christenson 10.

Nikki Fischer led the Greyhounds (9-12) with 12 points. Liesl Genelin and Julie Seifert each tossed in 11.

"I thought that our girls played with a lot of intensity tonight," said Cathedral coach Mary Dengerud who saw her team play without starting point guard Kristin Beranek who sat out the game with a persistent ankle injury. "We forced turnovers (32 by the Raiders) and that is something that we need to do going into turnovers -- I think that (the comeback) gave the girls a lot of confidence and now when Kristin is back (for playoffs) we will get ready for Tuesday."

Cathedral will host the winner of the Buffalo Lake/Hector-Cleveland game at 7 p.m. in Section 2A North play.

"They always play us tough," Christenson said whose team is seeded fourth in Section 2A South sub-section and will host GHEC Tuesday. "It was not the prettiest played game in the world (the teams combined for 60 turnovers with the Greyhounds guilty of 28). But in the second half, I kind of challenged our kids to come out and extend the lead."

That 29-23 halftime lead by the Raiders would balloon to a 35-23 margin as the Greyhounds were guilty of five turnovers in that first 3 1/2 minutes. Baskets by Sarah Christenson and points from Alison Brandt and Beth Hendrycks off of Hound miscues saw Nicollet holding that 12 point cushion. Nikki Fischer's basket momentarily stopped the bleeding but Nicollet continued the rush by scoring the next nine points to take a commanding 44-25 lead.

Two baskets by Chelsey Truebenbach, a putback by Holly Riggs and Christenson's rebound gave Nicollet that 19 point lead with just 10 seconds left in the third quarter.

Nine turnovers by the Hounds and a 2-for-11 shooting performance put them in a hole for the last eight minutes.

And when Brandt hit for a basket 15 seconds into the final quarter, it looked like a blowout for the Raiders.

However, Genelin's basket jump-started the Greyhounds who ran off 14 straight points to chop the margin to 46-41 with 4:50 left in the game.

Two baskets by Katie Gieseke -- off two of 11 turnovers by the Raiders in that quarter- began the Hound run. Nikki Fischer, Julie Seifert, Genelin and Fischer again were recipient of baskets courtesy of Raider turnovers.

"The turnovers have always been a concern for us," Christenson said. "We have had two losses this year that were directly related to turnovers -- we just kept turning the ball over. But we have also shown that there have been times when we cut down turnovers against some pretty good pressure."

That surge by the Hounds was not a surprise to Dengerud. "My kids never give up," she said. "We might have cold shooting nights and we might turn the ball over --but we always fight to the end."

But that would be as close as the Hounds would come as foul trouble -- losing both Gieseke and Melissa Kraus to fouls -- as Nicollet salted the game away from the charity stripe hitting eight of nine from the line.

The teams were tied 9-9 early in the game before the Raider inside power of Brandt, Christenson and Riggs allowed Nicollet to gain a 25-19 lead with 1:50 left in the first half.

"We moved the ball inside and were patient on offense," Christenson said. "We ran our offense -- moved the ball out a little bit --we were getting some good looks at the basket and get some rebounds and points."

"We knew that they were going to be taller than us," Dengerud said about the Raiders who had two 6-footers in the lineup. "But most teams are taller than us. We just had to move quicker and get more pressure on the ball because that will give us a couple of seconds to get in front of their post players. When we got into foul trouble, we played a little safer."

Cathedral lost the "B" game 22-19. Klarissa Swenson scored seven for Nicollet while Toni Hall led Cathedral with five.

NICOLLET 14-15-15-18=62

CATHEDRAL 9-14-4-14=47

NICOLLET (62): Brandt17, Hendrycks 12, Christenson 10, Truebenbach 9, Riggs 7, Kozitka 4, Mettler 2, Brown 1.

CATHEDRAL (47): Fischer 12, Genelin 11, Seifert 11, Gieseke 8, Lewis 2, Kraus 2, Waibel 1.