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Spring Lake Park 45, North Branch 44

Not many games will turn out as heart-wrenching as the Vikings loss to Spring Lake Park was.

In the first half, the Vikings came out firing on all cylinders. Junior Kallie Grote was on fire, hitting three three-pointers and five free throws to pace North Branch.

The Vikings dominated the pace and kept the pressure on Spring Lake Park, and they couldn't find a way to keep up with NB.

At halftime, the Vikings enjoyed a 31-13 cushion, and it looked like they would be easily on their way to their first North Suburban Conference victory of the year. "We certainly felt good at halftime, but we also knew Spring Lake Park had some real match up problems for us, and it started to show in the second half," Head Coach Dan Schindler said.

The Panthers had their sights set on their first conference victory, too, and things quickly turned ugly for North Branch.

Spring Lake Park started bullying the Vikings down low, using their height advantage to grind North Branch down. With Sarah Lekson as their only true post player, North Branch didn't have much of an answer for SLP's physical style of play in the post.

The Panthers slowly began chipping away until they had a lead, and although it was late in the game, North Branch just couldn't muster up enough effort for a final comeback. What really hurt the Vikes was their inability to make shot from the charity stripe. They missed all of their bonus free throws in the second half, and were 14-of-29 on the game from the free throw line.

"This certainly was a game of two exactly opposite halves for each team," Schindler noted. "As good as the first half was for us, the second half couldn't have been any worse."

The Vikings only scored 13 points in the second half, and according to Schindler, they just let way too many opportunities slip by them.

The Panthers enjoyed a 48-21 advantage in the rebounding category, and that was another huge reason Spring Lake Park was able to turn the tide in the second half.

Schindler's biggest concern, though, coming out of the game was just his team's inability to step up and make a shot when they needed one. "We rushed too many shots and needed to get the ball inside more instead of settling for to many outside shots," he said. "My concern is the lack of our varsity experience and it really showed in this game. When Spring Lake Park had all the momentum we needed someone to step it up and make a play. That just didn't happen.

Not all was lost in the crushing defeat, though. Schindler said they would use it as a learning experience and hopefully prevent anything like that from happening again.

Grote led the girls with 14 points, but all of them were scored in the first half. Erin Reber added nine points, Haley Huset had seven, and Lekson and Kendra Norman both netted six points. Norman also added nine steals on the night on defense.

North Branch 50, Visitation 35

The Vikings rebounded nicely when they took on the all girls school from Mendota Heights.

The Blazers have had a pretty strong program, but they just didn't match up with the experience and talent that North Branch had. "This was a nice test for us to see how we would react after a tough loss," Schindler said. "I was really pleased with our preparation and focus for this game. The girls were determined to correct some of our mistakes from the previous game and they really did."

The Vikings held a 10-point cushion by halftime behind some early shot-making from senior Chelsea Tollberg, and they only extended that throughout the second half as they raced away with the 15-point win. "We need Chelsea, as a senior leader, to do that for us," Schindler said after the game of Tollberg's early contributions.

Grote and Norman both put the ball in the basket early, and Norman narrowly missed out on a triple double, scoring 10 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and nabbing seven steals. "Kendra is our leader on the floor and she runs the show for us," Schindler said proudly after the contest.

Tollberg scored nine points, Grote had eight, Reber had eight and Lekson added five points and 10 rebounds.

"I really like that balance and hopefully we can keep that up in the upcoming games," Schindler noted.

North Branch will travel to the Simley Holiday Tournament for three games on Dec. 28, 29, and 30. They open up play at 3 p.m. on Tuesday Dec. 28th vs. Southwest Christian.

The remaining match ups and times will be dictated by how the Vikings do in their opening round match up.

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