HAWLEY, Minn. – The forecast called for snow, but it was raining 3s on Friday in Hawley.
Hawley girls basketball coach Bill Gottenborg asked his assistant Ben Lofgren, after a 60-37 win over Frazee, what the Nuggets shot from beyond the 3-point arc.
“What?” Gottenborg said. “Twelve of 18? Wow. Who made them all?”
Minnesota Class 2A’s No. 2-ranked Hawley does drills from 3-point range every practice, and the winner gets a Powerade. Someone owes Mira Ellefson and Olivia Olson Powerades, as the two buried 10 of those 12 shots from 3-point land to help snap Frazee’s seven-game winning streak for the Nuggets.
“One of our goals for a game is to make six 3-pointers as a team by the end of the night,” said Ellefson, who finished with a game-high 22 points. “That’s in the back of our minds. We’ve been working on them, so why not.”
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Frazee (9-5) answered Hawley’s 14-5 run to open the game with a 12-2 run of its own to take a 17-16 lead with 5 minutes, 29 seconds remaining in the half. Then, it became Ellefson time.
“There’s definitely not a pressure, but a realization that hits you that we need to start scoring, and I just stepped in and tried to make plays for my team,” Ellefson said.
Ellefson drove and forced a foul on the ensuing possession, nailing two free throws to get the lead right back and then buried back-to-back 3-pointers and a jumper to put Hawley up 26-22.
Frazee answered with a layup from Whitney Janu, but would get no closer. After Brittany Laddusaw nailed a 3-pointer, Ellefson closed the half with another triple and a layup to cap an 8-0 run and give the Nuggets a 34-24 lead into the break.
“She stepped up well in the first half,” Gottenborg said of Ellefson. “She got a foul, so she had to sit and gather her thoughts. She came off the bench with a lot of energy. She’s a very competitive kid, and that’s the nature with a lot of our girls. They have another gear when they need to go to that level.”
The second half was Olson’s turn to switch gears. Hawley (12-1) opened the second frame with a 16-3 run behind nine points from Olson, all coming on 3-pointers. In fact, all 18 of her points came on 3-pointers.
“We really started to communicate and things got going like that,” Olson said. “We figured out what we needed to do to break down their defense and move the ball around.”
Josi Tappe finished with 15 points, two shy of getting her 1,000th point of career, for Frazee and the Hornets saw their winning streak fall, along with many Hawley 3s.
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There was nothing really Frazee could do. The weather report didn’t mention anything about 3-pointers.
“They showed why they are the No. 2 team in the state,” Frazee coach Dave Conzemius said. “They basically buried us in the first three or four minutes of the second half. There’s not a lot of weaknesses on that team. They got height, they got great guards and they can shoot the three like nobody’s business. You got to be really clicking on all cylinders to beat them.”
Half: H 34, F 24
F: M. Oswald 6, Barlund 10, Tappe 15, Janu 3, H. Oswald 3.
H: Noreen 2, Olson 18, Laddusaw 6, Hovelson 10, Ellefson 22, Lawson 2.
