STORM LAKE, Iowa -- After a big win against the Morningside JV on Monday, the Minnesota West women's basketball team played its second game in two days when it travelled to play the Buena Vista JV on Tuesday.
If there was a question of whether or not the Lady Jays would have enough energy to win two nights in a row, LoRel Christensen answered it by playing her best game of the year.
Behind Christensen's 18 points, MW rolled past the Beavers by a final score of 75-58.
"LoRel played a great game," MW head coach Mike Fury said. "Not only did she get 18 points, which is a season-high by far, but she did a great job defensively on the boards. She just did a great job both ends of the floor tonight, so she definitely gets the game ball."
The Lady Jays came out of the gates strong for the third consecutive game, taking an 18 point advantage into the second half.
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"We played another great first half," Fury said. "In our first half in the last three games we've scored 44 points each game, so that's just great."
MW continued to hold a strong lead well into the second half -- taking a 58-34 advantage with about 12 minutes left in the game -- but the Buena Vista JV didn't back down.
The Beavers took control of the game for a stretch of about six minutes, narrowing the deficit to 61-49 at one point.
However, the Lady Jays hit some key shots to maintain the advantage, keeping the lead between 15 and 17 points for the rest of the game.
"I think during that stretch where we kind of got stuck and they made a little run at us we were a little bit tired from playing two days in a row," Fury said. "The good thing was we held them off and hit some buckets to get back to the lead that we had. They made a pretty good run at us, but we fought them off."
Sam Lynn and Kayla Vander Veen each had 15 points for the Lady Jays, with Vander Veen leading the team in 3-pointers for the second consecutive night, tallying three.
MW heads into the Thanksgiving break with a 6-2 record, and doesn't play again until Dec. 3, when the team hosts Hibbing.
"It's good going into the break with two wins like that," Fury said.
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Lady Jays 44 31 -- 75
BV JV 26 32 -- 58
Lady Jays (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Thier 2-1-0-8, Vander Veen 3-3-0-15, Maras 0-1-0-2, Smith 0-2-1-5, Lynn 0-5-5-15, Drooger 2-2-0-10, Schroeder 0-1-0-2, Christensen 0-7-4-18. Totals 7-22-10-75.
BV JV (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Matters 0-1-0-2, Brannan 0-0-2-2, Davis 3-1-0-11, Evans 0-2-0-4, Hansman 0-4-0-8, Lynott 0-2-1-5, Seda 0-1-1-3, Clayton 0-2-0-4, Dunham 0-1-6-8, Gilley 0-5-1-11. Totals 3-19-11-58.
