Reporters gathered
in the interview room after the first Class 1A girls basketball state semifinal
Friday at Williams Arena, where the team from Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa would be
first to meet with the media. The fifth-seeded Jaguars had led by 11 points with
less than 12 minutes to play before falling to top-seeded Mountain Iron-Buhl
61-57.
One reporter
asked another, “Do you know why number 25 for BBE didn’t play yesterday?” At
that moment, BBE coach Kris Anderson and three players walked into the room.
Number 25 is
senior Harley Roering. She had indeed not played in the Jaguars’ 60-44 quarterfinal
win over Underwood on Thursday at Maturi Pavilion. But in Friday’s game, Harley
came up big, playing more than 13 minutes, hitting four of five three-point
shots and scoring 12 points.
Before any
questions were asked, Anderson sat down and got right to the point as tears came
to her eyes. “I'd like to
start first with Harley,” she said, looking at number 25, who was seated at the
other end of the table, with teammates Allison Dingmann and Abby Berge between
her and the coach.
Kris talked
about Harley’s toughness, about how she suffered a torn ACL in her left knee –
for the second time in less than two years – more than a month ago. How she had
not played since that injury on Feb. 3 in a game against Atwater-Cosmos-Grove
City. And how earlier in the week, still hobbled and knowing her knee will require
TWO surgeries in the coming months, Harley came to the coach and said, “I want to try to play.”
“This girl hasn't practiced in
three, four weeks,” the coach said. “And on Monday, she said, ‘Hey, Coach, they
said I can play.’ I honestly thought she was kidding.”
Harley was not kidding. She came to practice,
got loose and began moving around the court. The coach thought, “Gee, she looks
pretty good.”
Harlee originally injured the knee
in May 2021 and had surgery in July that year. She will go back to the operating
room in early April for a bone graft procedure to prepare for a later surgery, she’ll
wear a brace for four to six months and then have that second surgery … or
third, depending on how you look at it.
“For her to step on this court today
with her teammates, and hit four threes,” said Anderson. “That was one of the
coolest moments I've had as a coach.”
Harley wore a brace on her knee Friday.
Asked why she hadn’t played in the quarterfinals, she smiled and said, “They didn't
need me. The team was doing just fine.”
Anderson added, “She’s one of the
toughest kids I've ever coached. Did you see that today? It was pretty cool.”
Mountain Iron-Buhl
had defeated Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 84-62 on Dec. 29. That loss gave
BBE a record of 2-2; they will take a 26-5 mark into Saturday’s third-place game
against Hayfield at Concordia University in St. Paul.
Even when trailing by a good margin
Friday, the Rangers of Mountain Iron-Buhl stuck to their game plan.
“The message was just to stay calm,”
MIB coach Jeff Buffetta said. “We have enough experience on this team and in
the last 11 minutes we basically went with our experienced five and just took
it one possession at a time. We told them to be disciplined on defense and get
after it and if you do that, you're going to give yourself a chance. And these
guys knew all along that they had a chance and they just kept after it.”
Mountain Iron-Buhl is one win away
from its first state title in girls basketball; they finished as state runner-up
in 2012 and 2017. They will meet BOLD on Saturday at noon at Williams Arena.
“I feel like this is everything that
we've worked for all year,” said MIB junior Hali Savela, who was quickly
interrupted by teammate Sage Ganyo, who interjected, “… our whole lives.”
Sage added, “We want to win a state
title. This is our dream. So we're going to give it our all.”
BOLD Holds Off Hayfield
A stout defense by BOLD held
Hayfield to 36.7-percent shooting as the Warriors advanced to the Class 1A
title game with a 58-46 win. BOLD will be making its first appearance in a
state championship game.
Bold, the third-seeded team, led
33-28 at halftime over second-seeded Hayfield. The Vikings made only seven of 20
field-goal attempts in the second half under the pressure defense of the
Warriors. Hayfield’s only lead in the game was 1-0.
“Hayfield is a very nice basketball
team,” said BOLD coach Brian Kingery. “They’ve got a couple of really good
players and one of our big goals was to try to shut down 25 (Natalie Beaver) and
3 (Kristen Watson) because they're very good basketball players. And our girls were
up to the task today.”
Beaver, who finished with two
points, was weakened by illness but made no excuses. “I had a little bit of
energy but I definitely got more tired faster,” she said after playing only 10
minutes of the 36-minute game. Watson was held to three points in 35 minutes.
In Thursday’s quarterfinals, Beaver scored 31 points and Watson had 10 in a
63-58 win over Badger/Greenbush-Middle River.
Class 2A girls basketball semifinals
Providence Academy vs. Minnehaha Academy
Goodhue vs. Albany
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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