Jan. 19—WORTHINGTON — Minnesota West basketball split its doubleheader with St. Cloud Tech Sunday, but signs pointed toward a 2-0 sweep.
The Lady Jay women’s team handled business by blowing out the Cyclones after an early slow start. The men’s team looked to follow suit with a double-digit lead in the second half. But the Bluejays saw their lead gradually go away as the Cyclones pulled off a comeback win.
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The Minnesota West men will have another home Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC) South division matchup with Rochester on Wednesday.
With Rochester not having a women’s team this year, the Lady Jays’ schedule this week will look a little different. They will head to Gustavus JV on Wednesday and then will host Dakota State JV Thursday.
The Lady Jays continued to solidify their No. 1 ranking in the country with an 89-52 win over a solid Cyclones team.
It was an important win for them returning home after a two-game stint on the road to remain the only undefeated team in MCAC South play. But as the Lady Jays of head coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka move forward in their division schedule, they still believe there’s plenty of room for improvement.
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“I still don’t think we played our best game of basketball,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “We play tremendous for a little while, then we have those four minute stretches where we just fall apart and don’t execute and panic. …We still talk about how we really haven’t put together 40 minutes, and it’s kind of a cliche, but when we do, I don’t know how you’re going to stop us.”
There’s a reason for the Lady Jays to think they haven’t peaked yet. They started slow in the opening minutes against the Cyclones and trailed 8-2 at the 4:34 mark in the first quarter.
Sophomore guard Sadie Krahling helped the Jays get going with five straight points to tie the game. That led to a 12-0 surge to take control by the end of the quarter with a 22-13 lead.
That was the first of multiple Lady Jay runs throughout the game, as they have been known to have stretches where they take over and put a game out of reach.
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“I just think we have a lot of weapons,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “If you focus on one, someone else can step up… and I think we were buying into it and willing to find the next, the next open player, you know. And when you can do that, we’re really hard to defend.”
They did it again to start the second quarter as an Izzy Klumper 3-pointer capped off a 9-1 run. Another element that makes the Lady Jays dangerous is their bench. While they may not have the most depth, the players they have coming off the bench consistently give them solid minutes.
It was freshman forward Katelyn Frodermann’s turn to step up in the first half against the Cyclones. With starter Katrina Schutz in a bit of foul trouble in the second quarter, the Adrian High School graduate Frodermann subbed in and scored seven first-half points. She finished the game with eight points in 17 minutes.
“She’s super talented, she’s just got a couple of sophomores in front of her, and so the biggest thing with Kaitlyn is just her confidence. Sometimes she goes in, she’s kind of timid, she’s just still kind of getting used to maybe being stronger in the college game,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “She’s an incredibly smart player, she can score, so I want to get her in more, but her coming in when (Schutz) is in foul trouble, that’s just huge for us.”
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She, along with a balanced, complementary attack, helped the Jays take a 43-29 halftime lead. A 15-3 run to start the third quarter was capped by a 3-point play from sophomore point guard Maddie Kamm.
The Lady Jay lead later passed 30 points when Payton Reimers cut to the basket for a layup at the 2:10 mark. After three quarters, Minnesota West led 70-38 en route to a third win of 30 or more points in the last four games.
Five Lady Jays scored in double figures, including four of the five starters. Krahling led the way with 17 points as Schutz and Reimers each added 15 with Schutz shooting an efficient 7-of-9 from the field. Kamm and Jayda Hellewell each scored 10 points and Klumper had nine.
Kamm led the team in rebounds with eight and Schutz led with six assists. Krahling and Reimers each grabbed seven boards and Hellewell had four steals.
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The team out-rebounded St. Cloud Tech 50-38, shot 42.3% from the field and an efficient 85.2% from the foul line.
The only scorer in double figures for the Cyclones was Allison Groskreutz with 13 points as the team shot 30.4% from the field, under 60% from the free throw line and committed 22 turnovers.
After three consecutive MCAC South losses, the Minnesota West men are looking to bounce back at home against Rochester.
They will face a Yellowjackets team that is 9-9 overall and 1-2 in division play. They started their division schedule with a narrow 73-68 loss to Riverland, the best team in the division. They then snuck past St. Cloud Tech 81-79 before recently taking a 101-90 loss to Ridgewater.
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Rochester’s 1-2 division mark is tied for fourth place in the division with M State Fergus Falls, while the Bluejays are dead last in the standings at 1-3.
The latest loss for the Jays included a St. Cloud Technical comeback.
With the first half close early, a Daniel Jones triple gave Minnesota West its biggest lead at 37-30 with just under 2:30 to go.
That lead quickly reached double digits after a Da’Shaundis Moore triple and a Keion Irvin reverse layup. By halftime, Minnesota West held a 47-35 lead.
St. Cloud Tech slowly began chipping away at the Bluejay lead throughout the second half. The Cyclones made it a 61-54 game with just under 12 minutes left. Back-to-back, layups later cut the Bluejay lead to just four points at the six-minute mark.
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After briefly cutting it to a two-point game, two treys from the Cyclones gave them their first lead since the early first half, with the score 79-77. A Jones layup tied the game on the next possession.
It was back and forth until two free throws and a 3-pointer put the Cyclones ahead 86-81 with around 1:30 to go. The game looked to be in hand for the Cyclones as they maintained their late lead, but the Bluejays tried to force a last-second comeback.
A Jones triple made it 92-90 with just 10.5 seconds left, and after a Cyclone missed free throw, the Jays had a chance with 8.5 left. But a turnover on the inbound pass led to more Cyclone free throws.
Both were missed, but the Bluejays never had a chance to tie the game as they were fouled with 2.6 left.
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Jones led the way with 17 points off the bench as five Bluejays scored in double figures. Kewone Jones added 16 points, Moore added 15 with a team-high nine rebounds, Irvin had 13 points and Owen Beilke had 11. Calvin Flood finished with eight assists.
The Bluejays shot 50.8% from the field but missed 10 crucial free throws throughout the game.
St. Cloud Tech was led by Carter Jackson’s game-high 23 points off the bench as the team shot over 60% in the second half. The Cyclones also made 11 big 3-pointers but missed 13 free throws, most coming in the first half. They have a 10-4 overall record and 2-1 division mark.
