College women's basketball: Lady Jays do what's expected

The Lady Jays were coming off a crucial victory over Rochester and entered with a perfect 7-0 record in the Southern Division. The first time playing against Riverland, West won by 49 points.

But the Blue Devils, who came into the game winless in the division, hung with the Lady Jays early.

“You have to give those guys credit,” said MW head coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka. “They are playing hard. They haven’t won a lot of games, but they are still playing. It shows in the Southern Division, you can’t take anybody lightly.”

MW broke away from a tight game late in the first half and kept pushing in an 86-52 victory.

“Overall, I think we were playing our game,” West sophomore Emily Haubrich said. “At first we were playing their game and we were so slow. In the second half we came out and played Lady Jay basketball.”

There wasn’t much separating the teams early on as West led 21-17 after the first quarter. WIth 5:30 left in the second quarter, the Blue Devils were within three, 27-24.

“It’s tough coming off a big win like Rochester, when you just don’t have that edge. That showed in the first quarter no doubt,” Hayenga-Hostikka said.“It’s a mental battle. We’ve talked about it in practice, we talked about it before the game, you have to be ready to go. It’s so hard when you see the record and you know you beat them pretty handedly the last time. That mental focus battle is tough.”

However, in the final five minutes of the half, West went on an 11-0 run. Andrea Hinkeldey started with a jumper and Katherin Ihnen scored three points. M’Kayla Mike made a jumper before Ihnen scored from the field and Haubrich made two free throws as West led 38-24 at halftime.

“We kind of let them play their pace,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “They walked the ball up the floor and it was real methodical. It lulls you to sleep sometimes. To get that 14-point lead at halftime, the end of the second quarter was huge. Just a little bit of breathing room and maybe put a seed of doubt in their mind.”

Out of the break, the Lady Jays kept pushing. Ihnen scored before Haubrich made a 3 and another jumper and Hinkeldey and Mike each made a shot as the lead was quickly 23 points.

“I don’t think we were necessarily nervous, but we realized, ‘Girls, let’s go,’” Haurbich said. “I wasn’t ever really nervous throughout the game but it was like, ‘OK, kick it in gear. This game isn’t a lackadaisical game, because these are the games that upsets always happen.’ At halftime all of us girls came in and said we need to kick it into gear and that’s what we did.”

MW closed the quarter on a 12-3 run and led 63-39 after three quarters.

Ihnen led all scorers with 32 points and 18 rebounds. Haubrich finished with 20 points, four assists and three steals, while Hinkeldey had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Every player scored for West.

“In games like this it’s nice to get everyone in the game and involved,” Haubrich said. “It’s nice to see because we’ve all improved so much this season. When you take one of us starters out, our bench players can do just the same. It was nice to see that in today’s game.”

Samantha Siskow led Riverland with 22 points, while Sophie Waldner had 15.

West improves to 17-4 overall and 8-0 in the division. It will host Fergus Falls on Wednesday.

Riverland 17 24 39 52

Lady Jays 21 38 63 86

RIVERLAND (3FG-3FG-FT-TP) Siskow 1-9-1-22, Alkamooneh 1-0-2-5, Waldner 1-4-4-15, Vasquez-Aguilar 0-2-2-6, Martinez 0-2-0-4. Totals 3-17-9-52.

LADY JAYS (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) Mike 0-2-0-4, Haubrich 4-3-2-20, Stanley 0-2-0-4, Hinkeldey 0-6-1-13, Wabeke 1-2-0-7, Van Roekel 1-1-1-6, Ihnen 0-14-4-32. Totals 6-30-8-86.