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Section 6AAA playoffs

First round-

North Branch 61

Fridley 36

Talk about taking them out early. Versus Fridley last Thursday in the first round of the section 6AAA playoffs, the North Branch girls basketball team jumped out to a 9-0 lead on the Tigers and an 18-8 advantage after one. It’s safe to say that the Vikings were ready to play.

“Our girls had a good week of preparation and we did a nice job of executing on both ends of the floor,” said Dan Schindler, North Branch girls basketball head coach. “We got the ball inside to Jenny Anderson early and also did a nice job of being patient on offense until we got a good shot.”

The Vikings lead grew to 19 at halftime thanks to another dominating performance in the second. This time, the Vikings defense led the charge, causing 10 Fridley turnovers. North Branch outscored the Tigers 16-7 in the second, giving them a 34-15 lead at the break.

“It was really a nice team effort. We have a lot of players that can help us in different ways and I thought everyone came in and played to their strength,” remarked Schindler. “I thought Marlayna Graff and Kristen Robatcek really gave us some great energy in the second quarter. They both have really improved the second half of the season and made us a much better team.”

The Vikings also got tremendous balance with four players scoring eight or more points in the game and three players scored in double figures.

Although the third quarter was slow and dominated by fouls, North Branch actually managed to build on their lead in the second half by outscoring Fridley 27-21 en route to a 61-36 win.

“It was just a nice way to start the tournament,” remarked Schindler.”

Gabi Olson and Megan Stegmeir each struck for 14 in the game while Anderson scored 12 points. Olson also finished with 11 rebounds and Anderson pulled down 10. In addition, Stegmeir finished with nine steals.

Up next, North Branch will face St. Michael-Albertville, the number two seed in the section playoffs. The Vikings will be going into that game looking for revenge. After their win over Fridley, North Branch has lost just twice over their last 16 games. Both of those losses came against the Knights.

“We are hoping the third time will be our game,” said Schindler. “We are definitely looking forward to the rematch.”

The winner of that game will face either Andover or Totino-Grace in the section championship on Friday night. All of the remaining section games will be played at Irondale.

North Branch 61

Fridley 36

No box score was submitted

North Branch scoring-

Olson 14, Stegmeir 14, Anderson 10, Graff 8, Good 6, VandenHeuval 2, Robatcek 2, Klein 2, Scherer 1.

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