WORTHINGTON -- With their section seed and quarterfinal matchup set earlier on Friday, the Worthington Trojans girls basketball team took care of the business at hand Friday night, beating section rival New Ulm 83-67 at the WHS gym.
On Tuesday, Worthington will open Section 2AAA competition at St. Peter in a 7 p.m. quarterfinal game. The Trojans are the No. 5 seed in the tournament, and St. Peter is No. 4.
In other section quarterfinal contests Tuesday night, Mankato East (1) hosts New Prague (8), Mankato West (2) hosts New Ulm (7) and Marshall (3) hosts Jordan (6).
The Trojans, playing on Senior Night, might have been forgiven Friday night for looking past the Eagles, but they played a consistent game en route to the victory. Their strong inside game was a big part of the result, as they went repeatedly to post players Tarren Spartz and Ellie Weg for scores, and when Spartz got into foul trouble (she fouled out with 5:12 remaining in the game), reserve Janessa Hamman played well to make sure her team didn’t miss a beat.
Worthington’s inside game accounted for 16 of the team’s first 18 points.
ADVERTISEMENT
“That was obviously the key, us going inside early,” said head coach Eric Lindner.
Linder was also happy about the Trojans’ pressure rotation which, he said, caused the Eagles to rush.
Spartz finished with 20 points and Weg had 16. Forward Olivia Hayenga scored 13 of her 18 points in the second half.
It was a game of spurts. Worthington led 7-2, trailed 9-7, led 29-20 with less than eight minutes remaining in the first half, then bumped up the lead to 38-26 at 4:16 on a Madison Beckmann 3-point shot. But barely two minutes later, New Ulm cut its deficit to 38-36.
The score was tied, 38-38, in the initial moments of the second half. Worthington moved out to a 55-45 lead, but when the Eagles’ Morgan Hulke swished two 3-point shots it was 55-51. From there, the Trojans pulled away for good.
While the Trojans maintained a strong inside presence in both halves, the Eagles maintained a productive 3-point shooting effort. They hit 11 3-point shots in the game compared to just four for Worthington.
WHS is 15-10 on the season. New Ulm is 12-13.
New Ulm 36 67
ADVERTISEMENT
Worthington 38 83
NEW ULM (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) -- Dreckman 1-3-5-14, Hulke 5-1-1-18, Hopp 2-3-0-12, Dennis 0-2-1-5, Nesvold 0-1-0-2, Lewis 3-1-5-16. Totals 11-11-12-67.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) -- Scheitel-Taylor 0-1-6-8, Beckmann 1-2-0-7, Hayenga 1-7-1-18, T.Spartz 0-7-6-20, Weg 0-8-0-16, Potter 2-1-0-8, Hamann 0-2-1-5. Totals 4-28-14-83.
