The Detroit Lakes girls basketball team survived the opening round of the Section 8-A tournament on Thursday.
The third-seeded Lakers (12-12) kicked off the quarterfinal round at home against the sixth-seeded Little Falls Flyers (4-21) on Thursday night at Lakeshirts Fieldhouse. In a game that got a little close for comfort at times, Detroit Lakes never surrendered the lead in a 39-29 win.
Lakers jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start the first half, and continued to build on that momentum carrying a 21-9 lead going into halftime.
The defense was particularly strong, boxing the Flyers out from second-chance opportunities on the glass. Detroit Lakes also did a nice job of forcing turnovers, which helped take a 12-point lead into the locker room after 18 minutes. Junior Jacee Hauser led the team in scoring in the first half with seven points.
Little Falls came out with more intensity in the second half as it, though outscored the Detroit Lakes 13-4 to cut the deficit to thre points.
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Detroit Lakes head coach Rachel Johnson called a timeout as it started to halt the Flyers' run. The Lakers regrouped and went on a 9-2 run to regain control of the gamebefore grinding out the clock to a 39-29 win.
Hauser and Sophomore Ella Okeson led the Lakers in scoring with nine points each. Junior Kendal Swantek led Little Falls with 13 points on the night.
“Things weren’t going particularly well for us tonight, but it's the section playoffs, and all that matters is that we won tonight,” Johnson said. “We definitely have some work to do, but I thought our defense stayed poised and we never stopped fighting—even after they started to make things a little close for a bit there in the second half.”
Detroit Lakes will hit the road to take on the Alexandria Cardinals, who hold the second seed in section 8-3A on Saturday.
“Alexandria is a good, young team," Johnson said. "They beat us in a close game early in the season, and our second game got canceled because of weather. We’re excited to see them Saturday. It should be a good match up."
