Afternoon at Community Clash

Prep Hoops Graphic

Marc Hugunin

February 19, 2017 @ 10:30 PM

Tonka came back from a 27-24 halftime deficit to edge New Prague 65-62. They took the lead on a Megan Walker steal-and-2 at 30-29 at 16:30, then took the lead for good at 39-38 on a Kelsey Schmidt put-back of her own miss. They completed a 13-2 run to lead 50-40 at 9 minutes. Katey Brattland hit 5 3’s inside of 12 minutes to make it 65-53 with 2:10 left. Improbably, the Trojans rallied back to within 3 though that was at 0:05 on an Emily Russo steal and assist to McKenzie Holgate for the breakaway 2. New Prague had too many fouls to give to get the ball back after that. What did Tonka do differently in the 2nd half? “Made some shots,” coach Leah Dasovich laughed. “I think we play well when we get touches inside and outside, even if we don’t score inside, we have to get them involved. That gets a little more space for our shooters.” Tonka has now won 2 straight after losing 7. Are the hard times over? “I hope it’s over.” Dasovich said. “I was a little eager with my scheduling with all the new kids. But during that seven game stretch, there were two really legit losses to Hopkins and Elk River. The rest were all 6 points or under, and with Katey Brattland out a couple of those games. And with her out of our lineup, it changes the way that we flow. It changed our lineup more than I thought it would.” But, Natalie Erhard stepped up with Brattland out, and she got two huge picks at center court for easy baskets. “We could have been down by 10,” Dasovich said. “Nat as a sophomore who had no varsity experience, what she brings to our team, is her defense generates her offense. So if she can get a steal and generate a little bit of offense for us, that’s what we need from her.” We asked New Prague coach the same question. What happened in the 2nd half? “31 happened. That’s what happened. She can shoot. We didn’t leave her that open but she was knockin’ ‘em down.” He went on to contrast that with his own team’s struggles. (They’re 14-10 which is “nowhere near where we want to be.”) “To find shooters is really tough. We play tough, we play these teams head up, but we can’t score with ‘em. These kinds of games have been very typical for us, we’re close, but we can’t finish it, we can’t score. We miss layups, we miss FT. If you want to win basketball games, you’ve got to do that.” “For these kids to win, it takes so much perfection on the other things when you can’t score. You can’t slip on a defensive assignment, you have to play tough on everything.” New Prague did that most of the way today but Katey Brattland and that 13-2 Tonka run kind of got in the way.