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The North Branch girls' basketball team picked up two wins and took third place in the Simley Holiday Girls Basketball Tournament. "It was a nice tournament for us because we played better each game and ended on a positive note, correcting some of the little things that have hindered us all year," said North Branch head coach Dan Schindler.  

North Branch 24 21 45

St. Paul Academy 14 8 22 

The Vikings opened the tournament Wednesday, December 27 with a game that wasn't as close as the score would indicate. North Branch dominated every phase of the game. But poor shooting, a weakness of the team all season, kept the score a lot closer than it should have been. 

"We led at halftime by 10, but had shot 37 times while St. Paul Academy had only attempted 14.  We were getting wide open shots, but they just weren't falling," Schindler said.  "It has been our main problem all year and we just keep telling the girls to keep shooting good shots. We will work our way out of this shooting slump." 

The Viking defense has been effective all season and the SPA game was no exception.  NB smothered the St. Paul offense the whole game and limited SPA to eight second half points. 

Kristen Robatcek led the Vikings in scoring with 12 while Gabrielle Olson added 11.  Robatcek disrupted the SPA offense all day and ended with nine steals and Olson stole the ball six times. Tiffany Good led the NB rebounders with seven.

North Branch Scoring

Kacie Ramberg 2

Tiffany Good 8

Randi Zentner 4

Ellie Fairbanks 2

Kristen Robatcek 12

Amy Aho 2

Lacee Scherer 2

Gabrielle Olson 11

Ashley Johnson 2

  Total 45

Holy Angels 25 39 64

North Branch 18 30 48 

Against the Academy of Holy Angels Thursday, December 28, the Vikings lost to the tournament's eventual champion.

"This was a better game for us, because we were playing a very good team," Schindler said. The game was very close in the first half. With 19 seconds left, the Vikings trailed by only three, but AHA scored four quick points to take a 25-18 halftime lead. 

Again, it was poor shooting that prevented the Vikings from leading this game. NB shot only 20 percent (6-30) in the first 18 minutes. 

"Nobody can ever accuse the girls of not playing hard.  It was a fast paced game and we did a lot of good things on the court," Schindler commented. "We forced them into 26 turnovers.  We just need finish our shots. 

"The second half saw us have a bad five minute spurt where we didn't handle the ball and Holy Angels was able to take over the game.  We kept battling and it was nice to see us finally score some points (30) in the second half. We felt, after the game, that we played a good team game and that things were starting to turn to the better for us," Schindler continued. 

Viking seniors Tiffany Good (14 points) and Gabrielle Olson (12 points) led the scoring, while junior Kristen Robatcek added 11. "Those three are going to have to carry us scoring and they all are playing better.  Amy Aho came off the bench and had six steals and gave us some really good minutes," the coach added. Good's nine rebounds led the team and Kacie Ramberg picked off seven boards. 

North Branch Scoring

Kacie Ramberg 6

Tiffany Good 14

Randi Zentner 2

Ellie Fairbanks 1

Kristen Robatcek 11

Megan Scherer 2

Gabrielle Olson 12

North Branch 34 34 68

Highland Park 24 28 52 

Friday, the Vikings shot well from the floor (40 percent). "This was our best game of the year and it sure was nice to look up at the scoreboard and see a 68," coach Schindler said. "It's funny how, when the ball goes in the hoop, all the other problems seem to go away. 

"It was a nice win for the team because they have worked so hard in every game this year with not many results on the scoreboard," Schindler added. Tiffany Good got going early. She hit several shots in the game's first minutes as the Vikings took a 10-2 lead. 

"We just seemed to relax after that and played some good basketball.  Highland Park puts a lot of pressure on you and I thought Gabrielle Olson really controlled the game, making great decisions on their press.  Gab drove through their press many times and dished out 11 big assists. 

"We also had a number of other players step up their game and gave us some needed offense.  Randi Zentner and Kacie Ramberg both had eight points and stepped up their offensive game.  Kacie hit a couple of three's for us and Randi did a nice job going against their bigger posts," the coach said. "Hopefully, this win can get us over the hump and we can play basketball like this the second half of the season." 

For the second game in a row, seniors Good and Olson led the Vikings in scoring. Good led with 19 points while Olson added 15 points to go along her 11 assists.

North Branch Scoring

Kacie Ramberg 8

Tiffany Good 19

Randi Zentner 8

Kristen Robatcek 9

Megan Scherer 3

Amy Aho 4

Lacee Scherer 2

Gabrielle Olson 15

  Total 68

Schindler added, "The JV team also played in the Simley JV tourney and won all three games, taking the Championship.  They are coached by Lexi Geisler.  It's nice to see our JV team playing well.  They work hard,too, and don't get much recognition for all the good work they do."

The two wins improve the Vikings' varsity record to 4-7 and they stay busy with two games to start the new year.  On Thursday, December 4, they travel to Totino-Grace for a 7:15 tipoff and are home for a Saturday game with Duluth Denfeld starting at 1 p.m.

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