Black helps advance Chargers

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

MANKATO -- A regulation high school basketball consists of 32 minutes.

On Monday, Minnesota Valley Lutheran needed 31 minutes and 56 seconds to defeat St. Peter 50-48 at Minnesota State University's Bresnan Arena in Mankato.

With the score knotted at 48, MVL called a time-out and drew up one last play, hoping for the a basket with under 10 seconds to play.

The Chargers found Kelsey Black open underneath, and she muscled her way around the Saints defense and shot straight up. The ball touched nothing but net as the Chargers advanced to the Section 2AA championship game Friday against Belle Plaine.

"We said we were just going to run our regular '12' offense," Charger coach Dave Biedenbender said. "In that, the post's interchange. We said whichever post gets free, that's the post we want to get it to."

"We wanted to pass it around and get it so there was at least under 10 seconds left so we wouldn't give them a shot even if we missed."

But they didn't miss as Black found herself the hero. Black scored 10 points, eight coming in the second half.

"They were in the '23' defense, and we were going to get it into our posts and work it around," Black said. "I guess I got kind of lucky, because usually I don't make those that often. I fell under the hoop and I just saw it coming down and it went right in."

Although Black's number wasn't specifically called for the play, she knew that whoever took the last shot would get a good one off.

"I knew we have a strong team, so I knew anyone of us could have done it," she said.

Jessica Merseth led the Chargers with 20 points and nine rebounds. She also had two blocks. Megan Vogel made her final appearance in a Saints uniform and scored 20 points. Vogel also fouled out.

MVL, which finished with a rough fourth quarter in its semi-final win over Le Sueur-Henderson, made sure that the same problem didn't happen against a physical St. Peter team. The Chargers scored the game's first six points and Lisa Peterson put the Chargers up 14-3 on the break off a Saints turnover.

The Chargers led 14-5 after one.

"We just wanted to go out there and play really hard," Peterson said. "The first quarter, we came out strong, but in the next quarter we just kind of laid off a little. But after halftime, we came out with the intensity we needed."

The Chargers displayed a lack of intensity in the second quarter. St. Peter fought its way back, and trailed 16-12 on Vogel's three-pointer. Another Vogel three made it 22-21, and Brittney Borgstahl's steal, layup, and free-throw gave the Saints the 24-22 edge going into the locker room.

"First of all, St. Peter started playing really hard," Biedenbender said. "And we started playing scared. We lost our composure, no doubt about it."

The Chargers regrouped and came out with a 10-0 run to start the second half. Danielle Kramer's three and Merseth's three-point play highlighted the run. MVL led 37-28 after three, but the Saints still had some fight left in them.

Vogel brought the back on another three-pointer and MVL led 40-39. Merseth hit back-to back baskets, and the Chargers went up 46-39 on Black's rebound and putback.

Ashley Loken hit her only shot of the night, a three-pointer, to tie it up at 48. The Chargers milked the clock for the final 23 seconds to get in position for the winning shot.

"We're all very excited and we can't wait to play on Friday," Peterson. "We hope we can come out with a win there."

MVL (26-2) meets Belle Plaine at 8 p.m. Friday at Bresnan Arena in Mankato.