St. Croix hands MVL 2nd loss

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- There are two things that jump out at you about Minnesota Valley Lutheran's 47-35 nonconference girls basketball loss Saturday afternoon to the St. Croix Lutheran Crusaders. First, the Crusaders dominated the inside in the second half, and second, the Chargers' 17 second-half turnovers.

St. Croix Lutheran rallied from a three-point halftime deficit to dominate the second half. The loss is MVL's second in three games.

"I told our girls they just out-toughed us in the second half," MVL coach Dave Biedenbender said. "We didn't respond to it."

There was no response from the Chargers to the Crusaders' Amanda Behnke. The 6-foot-2 junior forward scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the second half, and none came from more than three feet away.

With Chargers 5-foot-11 junior forward Jessica Merseth in foul trouble the second half, Behnke took over inside the paint. Behnke was 7-for-9 from the field in the final two quarters.

"She's really a strong player and she's only a junior," St. Croix Lutheran coach Sadie Fitzsimmons said. "She's been a leader on the court for us and she really stepped up in the second half. She was a good catalyst for our team."

Biedenbender couldn't agree more.

"I thought we did a good job against (Behnke) inside in the first half, or we just got lucky," he said. "She is dominating. She just dominated in the second half."

Couple Behnke's performance with MVL's 27 second-half turnovers and it was all just too much for MVL (1-2). Eleven turnovers hampered the Crusaders in the first-half, but in the final two quarters, with the offense taking better care of the basketball, the offense came alive after a sluggish first half in which St. Croix Lutheran shot just 26.1 percent.

"We started to move the ball in the second half," Fitzsimmons said. "We didn't worry about what they were doing. We decided we were going to play harder than they were."

Senior guard Deanna Schmidt added 13 points for the Crusaders and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Merseth scored 10 points before fouling out with 3:30 left in the game to share the scoring lead with junior Danielle Kramer.

Trailing 21-18 at halftime, the Crusaders started the second half with an 8-2 run. Schmidt capped the run by stealing the ball from MVL's Leah Morgan and going the other way for a layup that gave St. Croix Lutheran a 26-23 lead with 5:05 in the third quarter.

The Chargers committed four turnovers before they got their first shot from the field. MVL recorded eight turnovers as St. Croix Lutheran extended its run to 12-6. MVL committed 11 turnovers in the third quarter.

Merseth picked up her third personal foul with 39 seconds left in the third quarter. Behnke then gave the Crusaders a 34-27 margin heading into the final quarter when she got inside with just 10 seconds left.

Merseth was whistled for her fourth foul with 6:39 in the game and took a seat. Behnke capitalized, hitting her first three shots in the final quarter as the Crusaders extended their lead to 44-34 to put the game out of reach.

"It was a combination of the foul trouble with Merseth and some back-door stuff," Biedenbender said. "We weren't helping out on the back side."

And there were the Chargers' 28 turnovers in the game.

"I felt like we were out of it," Biedenbender said. "We were kind of frustrated. I felt like it impacted our confidence. It definitely took us out of our flow on offense."

MVL will travel to Winthrop Tuesday to play Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop.

ST. CROIX LUTHERAN 5 13 16 13--47

MVL 12 9 6 8--35

ST. CROIX LUTHERAN (47): Leier 1-7 1-2 3, K.Menges 1-7 0-0 2, Schmidt 5-13 1-4 13, L.Menges 3-5 0-0 6, Behnke 9-14 3-4 21, Jenkins 0-2 0-0 0, Wehrenberg 1-2 0-1 2. Totals 20-52 6-12 47.

MVL (35): Flatebo 1-5 0-2 2, Kramer 4-8 2-3 10, Burt 0-0 0-0 0, Morgan 0-7 0-0 0, Torvick 0-0 0-0 0, Buck 2-3 1-4 5, Hammerschmidt 0-0 0-0 0, Dzwonkowski 1-5 4-6 6, Merseth 4-10 2-5 10, Unke 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 13-39 9-19 35.

3-Point Goals--St. Croix 2-7 (Schmidt 2-4, Leier 0-3), MVL 0-5 (Kramer 0-2, Morgan 0-3). Fouled Out--Merseth. Rebounds--St. Croix 35 (Schmidt 7), MVL 31 (Unke 9). Total Fouls--St. Croix 22, MVL 16. Turnovers--St. Croix 19, MVL 28.