College women's basketball: Lady Jays are in a good place

But as the calendar turned to 2018, that’s a distant memory.

The Lady Jays defeated Western Technical College 97-53 Wednesday to improve to 6-0 since Jan. 1.

“Hopefully we can keep it going,” MW head coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka said. “We had a little three-game skid going into the Christmas break and right out of it. I think we kind of got some things turned around. It will be a whole different world on Saturday at Ridgewater. They are playing extremely well. That’s always a tough place to play. That will be a good test for us.”

Perhaps most importantly, Minnesota West (12-4) is off to a 3-0 start in the Southern Division.

“I’ll take 3-0 any day,” Hayenga-Hostikka said.

Since dropping three straight games, not only has West won, but the victories have been in convincing fashion. The Lady Jays are averaging 87.2 points per game, while allowing their opponents just 54.7 points during their winning streak.

“We changed a few things up offensively that you can tell has helped us tremendously,” MW sophomore Katherin Ihnen said. “I hope we can keep pushing that down the road.”

From the beginning of Wednesday’s game, the Jays were in control. Ashlynn Wabeke turned a steal into a basket as MW led 9-0 early in the game. The advantage went to 25-11 at the end of the first quarter and 48-21 at halftime.

“Sometimes when you get ahead by that much it’s a little hard to keep your focus,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “So I thought we did a nice job. It was nice because some of them didn’t have to log as many minutes and we could get others some more minutes. That’s always a nice thing.”

The Lady Jays opened up the offense in the third quarter as a pair of 3s by Emily Haubrich closed the third quarter with West leading 71-36.

“I think we played really well,” Ihnen said. “It’s always tough with a team like that, you kind of lose your focus a little bit, but if you keep your focus and work together as a team, then everything usually ends up good.”

Five Jays finished in double figures, led by Ihnen’s 32 points and 14 rebounds. Haubrich tallied 23 points, while Andrea Hinkeldey had 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Wabeke and Avery Van Roekel each scored 10 as MW shot 59.7 percent from the field and had 20 assists as a team.

“I thought we did a nice job,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “I thought we kind of could get any shot we wanted. I thought we passed the ball pretty well. Andrea had six assists and that’s huge because they are going to start doubling down on the post.”

Minnesota West is at Ridgewater on Saturday.

“I think each game we have to focus on something new and then carry that into the next game and next game and keep improving and working as a team,” Ihnen said. “That’s one of our biggest things, keep working as a team.”

Western Tech 11 21 36 53

Minnesota West 25 48 71 97