Lakeville South survives Mayo clinic

<p>Rochester Mayo and coach Rich Decker showed how to keep a skinny, undersized team with limited offensive tools in the game with a more experienced, home-standing opponent. Like pretty much every high school team I’ve seen this year, Lakeville South had a very hard time figuring out Mayo’s 2-3 zone. For 15 minutes, the Spartans put on a clinic. South started 0-for-7, mostly from long range, and trailed Rochester Mayo 8-2 <strong><em>halfway through the 1st half. </em></strong></p> <p>But, then, South quit turning it over, and then hit 6-of-18 shots the rest of the half—not great, mind you, but better than Mayo’s 1-of-7 with 7 turnovers. South took its 1st lead at 10-9 on an Erin Tupy 3 at 2:55, then Annie Guentzel and Bianca Biffert scored inside of 30 seconds for a 15-10 Cougar lead at the half.</p> <p>Scoring finally started coming a little easier for South in the 2nd half. They made 7-of-17 shots through 9 minutes with just one turnover to lead 31-12. Then they started turning it over again and Mayo’s 6-1 senior post Jenifer Giefer started attacking the basket, making the final score of 35-25 sound a lot closer than it really was.</p> <p>When the South offense was clicking—that was in the middle half of the game when they outscored Mayo 29-4—it was really clicking. On the night the Cougars registered 10 assists on just 14 buckets, 3 assists each by Tupy and Bianca Biffert. Biffert also led South in scoring with 9 points, while Anna Harvey scored 7, and Guentzel and 6-0 sophomore substitute post Haylee Wheeler scored 6, and Wheeler added 5 boards in limited minutes.</p> <p>South, the #3 seed in Section 1AAAA, moves on to face #2 seed Farmington in Rochester on Saturday afternoon. South’s size on the perimeter might not be a big disadvantage against Farmington, though the Tigers figure to be a little bit quicker. But the Tigers 6-4 Sophia Hart and 6-0 Kaitlin Winston figure to test the Cougars’ bigs pretty severely.</p> <p>Mayo, meanwhile, begins preparing for next year, when the return of 5-9 wing Foney Marcellino will make life better. Expected to be the Spartans’ best player, Marcellino missed the entire season with a knee injury. Next year, as a senior, she’ll be joined by 3 young bigs—5-10 junior (to be) Nancy Soros, 5-9 junior (to be) Jessica Kunkel and 6-1 sophomore (to be) Anna Miller. Soros and Kunkel started and scored just 2 points between them on 1-of-10 shooting, but Miller came off the bench to score 6 points with 4 boards in limited minutes tonight. During the regular season, they combined for 23 points and 14 rebounds a night.</p> <p><strong>Three Stars</strong></p> <p><strong>Jenifer Giefer, Mayo, 6-1, senior, post</strong></p> <p>Giefer was the most consistent offensive threat on the floor with 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting, and added 6 boards and 2 blocks. Mayo coach Rich Decker left the senior on the floor almost to the end, after the other senior starters had exited the floor, because she kept on working hard to the very end.</p> <p><strong>Anna Harvey, South, 5-6, junior, point guard</strong></p> <p>Harvey shot just 2-of-8 but overall was South’s most active perimeter player. She has the best developed sense of when to attack, when to back off, when to pass, when to shoot, and she is the quickest Cougar guard. She added 3 boards and 4 steals.</p> <p><strong>Erin Tupy, South, 5-9, senior, guard</strong></p> <p>Tupy came off the South bench at about the 14 minute mark, when the Cougars were still 4 minutes away from their 1st points. She turned it over on her 1st 2 touches but brought some energy to the proceedings. Finally, at 10 minutes, she blocked a Mayo 3-pointer and got downcourt for a long Ellie Wolkow pass and 2 points. She added a 3 at about 3 minutes for South’s 1st lead of the game, and they would never trail Mayo again.</p>