Spartans prevent Rockets from taking off
Senior Makenzie Riley scored 18 points en route to a dominating victory over the Paton-Churdan Rockets for the Spartans 17th win of the season. The Spartans got back in the win column after dropping its previous match to the Woodbine Tigers Friday night on the road.
“It’s just good to get back into the swing of things,” said Spartans Head Coach Tom Petersen. “It was kind of a mental letdown from Friday because our kids were excited for that. We just didn’t play nearly as good as what we needed too.”
Riley got the Spartans going by dropping the first bucket in the opening minute of the game. Four minutes into the game, however, the Rockets were right on the Spartans tails, trailing by just two. Following a timeout, Senior Quinn Grubbs made a shot from downtown to make it a 9-4 Spartans lead.
The Spartans took 14-6 lead into the second quarter. The Rockets opened the second quarter strong with Senior Emma Stream making a 3-point shot to cut the Spartans lead to five points. The lead was cut to three when Petersen called a timeout.
Following the timeout, the Spartans started to dominate going on an 8-0 run, taking a commanding 20-point lead into halftime.
“Our shots weren’t falling the first part of the game,” said Senior Shay Burmeister. “He [Petersen] just told us that we have to execute plays and it’ll be there, so we just kept shooting our open shots and crashing the boards.”
The Spartans opened up the second half of the game going on another 8-0 run before a timeout occurred. Riley went to the free throw line following the timeout, where she connected on 1 of 2 free throws for a 45-16 lead.
With the third quarter coming to an end, the Rockets had yet to score points, but that changed when Freshman Becca Anderson was fouled, hitting 1 of 2 free throws. Soon after, Freshman Rocket Calleigh Fitzpatrick made a 3-pointer. The Spartans outscored the Rockets 21-6 in the third, taking a 35-point lead into the final quarter.
Both teams added a few more shots in the final quarter, but the Spartans cruised to a 71-29 victory, improving its record to 17-4 on the season. Petersen credited the girls for getting the victory.
“I think we were just running the floor a little bit better,” he said. “I don’t think our hands we’re very active early on. We just looked really sluggish from the weekend.”
The playoffs are right around the corner, but the Spartans will have some time before their postseason journey begins, awaiting the winner of the Woodbury Central and Ar-We-Va in the Class 1A – Region 4 Quarterfinal game set to take place Feb. 14.
“We really have to make sure our team is healthy,” Burmeister said. “We only have eight girls, so we all have to chip in. It’s really important for us to be ready because everybody is going to be 0-0 come playoff time, and everybody is going to be ready to go, so we have to be ready."