WHS GIRLS' BASKETBALL: Trojans roll Huskies 65-47

JACKSON — In the first meeting between the Worthington girls’ basketball team and Jackson County Central, the Trojans demolished the Huskies with a 30-point victory (79-49) on Dec. 13.

Both teams were expecting a closer contest the second time around.

Although the loss wasn’t as brutal for JCC this time, the Huskies still lost the game by double-digits, dropping their regular season finale 65-47 Thursday night.

“I was hoping we could compete with them, but with Whitney [Burmeister] sitting out the second half, that made it real difficult for us,” JCC head coach Tom Schuller said. “We’re also missing our starting point guard who’s out with the flu tonight. And we’ve had two other key players out with injury. So it was really difficult. Our depth has been depleted and that really showed up quite a bit tonight against a deep team like Worthington. It’s tough to match their depth at times.”

The Trojans went into halftime with a slight eight point lead (29-21). But WHS rolled from there.

By the 15:25 mark of the second half, WHS had increased its lead to 11 points, remaining ahead by double-digits for the rest of the game.

The Trojans went on a 16-5 run over the next six minutes to give the visiting team a 22-point lead (51-29) with 9:39 remaining in regulation.

JCC was able to close the gap slightly, eventually losing the game by 18 points.

But the key downfall to the Huskies’ game was the 28 turnovers they racked up throughout the contest. That was in comparison to 14 by the Trojans.

And as Schuller said, “there’s no possible way you can win a game with that many turnovers.”

“I think his kids got tired and I think we forced them to make some poor decisions,” WHS head coach Eric Lindner said. “[Schuller] was kind of handcuffed. He had a lot of girls out. But I thought we did a nice job defensively tonight. We missed a lot of shots, so if we made those it would’ve been more of a point differential, but that’s how it goes. I’m proud of our kids though. They played tough.”

The Huskies’ star forward, Whitney Burmeister, went down at the end of the first half with what appeared to be a knee injury.

She was driving to the basket when she landed awkwardly, eventually able to walk of the court with a slight limp on her left leg.

Burmeister, JCC’s leading scorer, had five points, seven rebounds and two assists with 2:43 left to play in the first half — the time of her departure.

The senior spent the entire second half on the end of the bench with her left leg elevated on the chair next to her.

“I think it kind of showed how valuable she is to us with all the things she can do,” Schuller said. “It was a struggle for us without her.

“She went down with a knee injury. At first she walked off OK, but that’s not really an indicator on how it is. Right now, that’s the main concern I have for this team, Whit’s medical reports.”

The Huskies were led by Kaylee Burmeister’s 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. Marita Rasche added eight points and four rebounds, while Michelle Van Epps had eight points and 10 rebounds. Brooke Klontz also brought down seven rebounds for JCC (15-10, 7-5).

The Trojans (14-7, 10-2) were led by Mackenzie Gerber’s 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Kristen Andersen had nine points and six rebounds, while Bernadette Boever had nine points and six rebounds for WHS.

JCC’s regular season is over, so the Huskies have a week off before taking on Windom in the first round of the Section 3AA South Sub-Section game on Feb. 25.

Worthington still has two regular season games to play. The Trojans take on Martin County West on Tuesday before wrapping up the season with a home contest against New Ulm on Thursday.

The Trojans will play St. James in the first round of the Section 3AA South Sub-Section game on Feb. 25.

“We played hard tonight, we just have to be smarter,” Lindner said. “Free throws were a concern tonight. They have to do a much better job from the free throw line. If we shoot more free throws than our opponents, we win about 90 percent of those games. So we have to be more aggressive going to the basket and then we have to be smart at the line. We have some things to work on.”

WHS 29 36 — 65

JCC 21 26 — 47

WHS (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Landgaard 0-1-1-3, Andersen 1-1-4-9, B. Boever 1-3-0-9, Gerber 0-8-4-20, A. Boever 0-1-0-2, Kemper 0-2-0-4, Gravenhof 0-4-0-8, Juber 0-0-3-3, Riley 0-2-0-4, Alwal 0-1-0-2, Coriolan 0-1-0-2. Total 2-24-11-65.

JCC (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Rasche 1-2-1-8, Van Epps 0-3-2-8, Handzus 0-2-1-5, W. Burmeister 1-1-0-5, Johnson 0-1-0-2, Klontz 0-0-1-1, K. Burmeister 2-2-2-12, Steffen 0-2-0-4, Reed 0-1-0-2. Total 4-14-7-47.

Daily Globe Sports Reporter Jocelyn Syrstad can be reached at 376-7335.

Tags: jackson county central, sports, prep, basketball, trojans