Surviving lots of early turnovers, the varsity girls downed Madelia for the second time this year on Thursday. The final was 71-36.
“I think we get pretty excited when we have a lot of transition plays,” said head coach Myrriah Rutz. “We made a couple of poor passes. We talked about how against the zone, it might look open, but you have to be quick, because it closes quickly when passing inside. But then we really turned it on.”
En route to 31 points, Taylor McCabe dumped in seven twos, a three and six foul shots in the first half. Harper Rutz added a hat trick of threes, and the Clippers led 44-17 at the intermission.
McCabe finished the night with 11 twos, a three and six free baskets. Rutz and Emma Kortuem each added 11 points. Kortuem had one three. Brooke Bosse put in three buckets for six total points. Mollie Bowman added four points. Taylor Wolf, Ava Kluntz and Valentina Rohlfing each contributed two points.
The Clippers made 14 of 23 free shots. The Blackhawks made four threes and eight of 12 free throws.
McCabe grabbed 18 rebounds. Bowman hauled in seven rebounds. Kortuem had six rebounds. Rutz had five rebounds. Kaitlyn Flowers snared five rebounds. Kluntz had three rebounds. Bosse had three rebounds. Olivia Reinhardt had one rebound. Rohlfing had two rebounds.
The Clippers will have a chance to avenge an earlier season loss when they host Nicollet tomorrow (Tuesday).
“We got our offense running tonight, and we really want to keep focused on maintaining that,” Rutz said.
Above: With her teammates following, Emma Kortuem tears through the lane for a shot.
Taylor McCabe twists for a shot.
Mollie Bowman zeros in on the bucket.