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North Branch vs. Totino-Grace

Tuesday, January 17 the Vikings beat the Eagles 46-33 at North Branch.

This game followed the pattern of recent Viking wins. Totino took an early lead before North Branch settled down and started to play its game. The team hit some big shots and worked its way to a 25-19 halftime lead.

“Tiffany Good and Kristen Robatcek both are giving us some good, consistent minutes on offense.  They each had nine first half points,” commented North Branch head coach Dan Schindler.

“We have been outscoring most of our opponents the second half and did so again, outscoring Totino 21-14 for the win.  Our defense was very good the whole night and we limited Totino to 26 percent (14-54) shooting for the game,” Schindler continued.

Gabrielle Olson hit 7 of 9 freethrows in the closing minutes to eliminate any chance of a Totino comeback. She continued her strong floor leadership with eight rebounds, eight steals and five assists.

Scoring Summary

North Branch 25 21 46

Totino-Grace 19 14 33

Kacie Ramberg .............. 2

Tiffany Good .............. 13

Randi Zentner .............. 1

Kristen Robatcek ............. 9

Jill Vanden Heuvel .......... 5

Marlayna Graff .............. 5

Gabrielle Olson .............. 11

Total 46

North Branch at St. Louis Park

Friday, January 20 the Vikings edged the host Orioles 41-39 to improve its North Suburban Conference record to 5-1.

This game was close the whole way. St. Louis Park used its size to combat North Branch’s quickness by playing a zone defense that limited penetration and forced the Vikings to shoot from the perimeter.

“We weren't able to really get any penetration and hence we shot only four free throws for the game.  When you can't get to the free throw line and don't get many inside shots, it’s going to be tough to score many points. On the other hand, our defense again stepped it up and didn't allow St. Louis Park to get much either,” said coach Schindler.

The score was tied at 20 at the intermission. “We talked at halftime about just being more patient and waiting until we got a wide open outside shot.  We did a pretty good job of that, but cold shooting kept the game close.  We finally had a little run on baskets by Tiffany and Kristen and took the lead 39-33 with about 2:30 left in the game,” Schindler continued.

Two Oriole three pointers tied the score with two minutes on the clock. North Branch held the ball for the last shot. Schindler called a timeout with 16 seconds left.

“We talked about getting the first good available shot.  At the eight second mark that came as Olson was able to drive down the lane and make the winning basket.

“It wasn't the prettiest basketball game, but it was a nice road win.  We are playing good team basketball right now and each night different girls are stepping it up to help us out.  We don't have any big superstars, but collectively, we are a pretty good basketball team that works very hard.  It’s really a fun group of players to coach,” Schindler added.

Olson led the Vikings, again, with seven rebounds, eight assists and eight steals.

Scoring Summary

North Branch 20 21 41

St. Louis Park 20 19 39

Kacie Ramberg .............. 4

Tiffany Good .............. 13

Randi Zentner .............. 2

Kristen Robatcek ............. 14

Jill Vanden Heuvel .......... 4

Gabrielle Olson .............. 4

Total 41

  “We won both these games playing the style of basketball we have to.  Most of the teams in the conference are pretty evenly matched and we just have to  play good team defense and then do  enough on offense to pull out some wins.   The key to our team is defense and that’s how we win close games,” Schindler concluded. 

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