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North Branch 51, Staples Motley 48
Even without one of their key players, the North Branch girls basketball team managed to win the Little Falls Holiday Tournament on December 29-30.

Kalley Hartmann was nursing an injury going into the tournament, so she was unavailable, and it required some other players to pick up the slack.

Head Coach Jerome Huselid switched his defensive schemes up at times during the contest, and it really sent the Cardinals into a tailspin. “We did a good job with the switches and wore them down over the course of the game,” he said.

The key to North Branch’s victory over Staples was their elite shot selection. Although they didn’t shoot the ball a ton in the first half, they shot it well, hitting 50 percent of their field goals.

In the second half, they weren’t able to get the three pointers to drop at the same clip, but they raised their two point field goal percentage up to 57 percent, and that covered the difference.

The Lady Vikes held on 51-48 in the opening game of the four team tournament and they were led by Courtney Selbitschka. She had an efficient 17 points on just 10 shots and added three steals. Megan Becklin had eight points and eight rebounds and Morgen Coleman had nine points and three steals. Maiya Fair chipped in seven points and Megan Carlson had six points and four steals.

“We shot well and we were able to put a lot of ball pressure on the Cardinals to prevent them from getting good looks at the basket,” Huselid explained. “With Kalley out due to injury, Megan Carlson and Cianna Selbitschka both had to be versatile and play some post.  Megan Becklin played great defense and finished with 19 rebounds over the two games.”
 
North Branch 55, Little Falls 47
The Vikings had a bit more of a comfortable lead in this victory. They didn’t shoot nearly as well as the first game, but their sheer volume of shots and getting to the free throw line kept them ahead.

Coleman netted 23 points, grabbed nine rebounds and swiped four steals in the game while Courtney Selbitschka had 20 points and six rebounds.

The pair dominated the game, scoring 43 of North Branch’s 55 points and the Flyers had no answer for them. Becklin had five points and 11 rebounds.

“We had a great start against Little Falls.  They started out the game in man to man and we jumped out to an 11-0 lead.  They then switched to a zone and we lost our aggressiveness for a while.  We picked up some aggressiveness the second half and made some nice cuts to the basket,” Huselid said. “Courtney hit some big three pointers and Little Falls hit some big three pointers to narrow our lead, but we held on.

Both Morgen and Courtney had great shooting games combining for 43 points.  We again played great defense and rebounded the ball very well to secure the win.”

Upcomings
Earlier this week, the Vikings started an eight game homestand. They won’t travel again until January 30. They kicked off the stretch with Buffalo and will host Chatfield on Saturday, Jan.9 at 2:30 p.m.

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