Eastview pulls away from Apple Valley 40-25

Underdog Apple Valley came out with an intense, swarming defense that put unbeaten, #1-ranked Eastview on its heels through much of the 1st half. As a result, Eastview shot just 5-for-25 in the 1st half, and the 2 teams were locked in an unlikely 11-11 tie as the 1st half ran down inside of 15 seconds. Of course, Eastview matched Apple Valley’s intensity, and the Lightning’s Megan Walstad, guarding the Eagle’s leading scorer Brynne Rolland man-to-man, held Rolland to just 2 points on 2 shots. And when an unfortunate Apple Valley shot went up with 10 seconds remaining in the half, sure enough, Eastview punished the Eagles for the poor shot selection by racing downcourt, where Macy Guebert drained a 3 from deep in the left corner for a 14-11 Lightning halftime lead. “That,” the halftime buzzer beater, “always helps the mindset,” said Eastview coach Molly Kasper. “At halftime, I said, can everybody just take a deep breath and relax and have fun,” Kasper added. “Because for awhile there it looked like we were a little more tense than we usually are. Because we were getting good looks in the 1st half. We were getting what we wanted. We want Macy to have a 3, we want Megan to have a 3, we want Megan to have it in the block, Mariah got good looks, everyone got good looks, we just looked a little more tense than we have lately.” Opening the 2nd half, Rolland scored quickly on a play designed for just that purpose. But that would be her only 2nd half bucket until inside of one minute, long after the game had been decided. “Megan (Walstad) is one of if not the best defensive players in the state,” coach Kasper said, “with her ability to guard a 1 through a 5, so when you put her on Brynne with her length and her height…and on top of that you have people who are digging down or moving and still recover into a closeout, we’re really tough to play against.” In fact, it was Walstad who responded to Rolland’s bucket with one of her own, then 2 FT and 2 more buckets, and suddenly it was 27-16. Apple Valley would never get closer than 9. After shooting 20 percent in the 1st half, Eastview shot better than 50 percent in the 2nd, and no wonder. Eastview assisted on 8 of 13 buckets while Apple Valley’s ball movement clearly was not so crisp. So, Apple Valley shot 26 percent and assisted on just 2 of 10 buckets. Guebert finished with a game-high of 14 points on 3-of-6 FG, including 2-of-4 3s, and 6-of-6 FT. Walstad added 10 with 7 rebounds. Sophomore guard Kalena Myers was Apple Valley’s most active player and its most effective on offense, coming off the bench to inject some energy into the Lightning’s play. She scored 7 points on 3-of-8 shooting, while fellow sophomore guard Anna Mutch also scored 7 on 2-of-7 shooting. Rolland added 6 on 3-of-8 shooting. But overall, Apple Valley made just 10-of-36 FG (about 27.5 percent). Here’s what the 2 coaches had to say about the game. Eastview coach Molly Kasper Did you anticipate that Apple Valley would come out with that kind of defensive intensity? We did. Last time we beat them by 5 but we had a 16 point lead. A lot of people just look at the score and say, oh, yeah, it’s different. But that was really a good period for us. We had a weak stretch of Apple Valley, Prior Lake and Park, where we statistically played some of our not-greatest games. And we were able to come together and remember what our focus was. Undefeated, feeling really good, but with a tendency to start thinking ahead of where you really need to be. So it was a really good time for us to take a step back and ask, what is our purpose, what is our mentality, why are we here in the long run. So it really helped us. But I did expect their intensity. It’s the 3rd time we’ve played them, there a crosstown rival. It's the 1st time they been here in 14 years, and a lot of times when you’re considered to be an underdog against the #1 team in the state, you’ve got nothing to lose. So that’s typically an advantage going the other way. So we expected them to play hard. We didn’t expect them to roll over, and they didn’t. They fought, they battled, the did everything we expected them to do. We didn’t take advantage in the 1st half and we took advantage in the 2nd half. It’s easy to talk about Apple Valley and their defensive intensity, but you held them to 15 points less than what you scored. So tell me about your defense. Brynne Rolland, in particular, didn’t get any open looks. It makes it a lot easier when (our team) bought into defense right from the beginning. We don’t always get looked at as a flashy team, and it’s our 7th straight trip (to state) and we don’t get mentioned with a lot of the other big teams sometimes, and sometimes people doubt us. But we bought into defense and we held opponents to about 40 points a game, and we’ve bought into it. And we have 5 (starters) who’ve bought into it and 3 people coming off the bench who’ve bought into it just as much, so our overall team defense is what makes us special, and then you can game plan any way you need to. Megan (Walstad) is one of if not the best defensive players in the state with her ability to guard a 1 through a 5, so when you put her on Brynne with her length and her height…and on top of that you have people who are digging down or moving and still recover into a closeout, it’s really tough to play against. So we just try to keep playing team defense, and that’s really key for us. And, then, of course, it was also important to score a little bit in the 2nd half and you did that. Did you do something different in the 2nd half besides making some shots? At halftime, I said, can everybody just take a deep breath and relax and have fun. Because for awhile there it looked like we were a little more tense than we usually are. Because we were getting good looks in the 1st half. We were getting what we wanted. We want Macy to have a 3, we want Megan to have a 3, we want Megan to have it in the block, Mariah got good looks, everyone got good looks, we just looked a little more tense than we have lately. And once we relaxed and started to have some fun, we started to get some transition stuff and to finish our transition stuff. But when you can grind out a game like that when you’re not shooting your best, then you know you can rely on your defense and luckily we have that advantage. Did the 3 at the buzzer help with that mindset? That always helps the mindset. And Macy, when it’s game time, she’s always ready to go. She’s got that look. She’s got that edge. So it always helps when she can get one more bucket before going in at halftime, and having the lead going into halftime even if it’s 14-11. I said, you’re playing great defense, but you’re playing even better defense on yourself. Are you happy being unbeaten? We’ve really tried to focus on not…we talked about it once when we went 26-0, it was the 1st time in school history doing it, but the next Powerpoint slide says we’re 0-and-0, and that’s the last we say about it. Throughout the year, we’ve asked the girls, what’s our record, and half of them don’t even know because we’re so focused on the process together. We just want to be in the gym together. They’re just a great group, they just want to play together. So I don’t care if it’s zero or 5 or 10, we’ve had some really close games that we’ve learned a lot from, but it doesn’t mean anything now. We’re 0-and-0. Bryan Doughty, Apple Valley coach You came into a new situation last fall and you had some goals. How would you say this season went relative to your goals and what you hoped for in your 1st year here? I’m just so proud of these kids, they played so hard tonight. They’re just inexperienced. And on a night like tonight, you need a little bit of experience. It’s a growing pain. But we’ll be back, we’ll be back to take them on again next year. You said last fall that your kids would learn to play defense…. And that’s why I’m so proud of them. They absolutely committed to it, and that will keep us in every game. This is the worst game, offensively, that we’ve had all year, and it’s the section finals. It happens. But I’m so proud of these kids, I’m so happy about it. You’ve had a chance to look at the youth program and the pipeline. Do you feel you’re going to have the talent at Apple Valley to keep improving? We’re building. We’re building. We’re going to go through some growing pains, but we’re going to get there, sooner than later. You played some depth tonight and your young kids made some plays. Kalena Myers played really well. She was fantastic, she did such a good job of ignoring the noise and just being herself. She did a really great job tonight. But I’m just so proud of all these kids, they did something (playing in a section final) that we haven’t done in 14 years.