Miners District 10 Champs
BY MICHAEL NATHAN
BHG News
The Wilton Wing Miners headed into the District tournament this last weekend on a bit of a skid. They dropped two games in a row to District 10 teams that seeded the Miners at the fourth position. They had a chance to be the number one seed by winning these last two games, but failed to do so. But the Miners still felt as though they had chance to win the entire thing.
"We had good practice this week," head coach Lisa Jenkins said, "There are no more x’s and o’s to teach, it’s just building up your team’s intensity."
The Miners drew the Washburn Cardinals in the first round who they had met and beat previously this year 43-28. Washburn finished their season with a nice win over Powers Lake to enter the tournament. Both teams started the game a bit sloppy. Kate Fox had a great opening quarter with nine along with Paige Hausauer with seven. By halftime the Miners had pushed the lead to twelve on some good defense and the press created turnovers. Washburn made a push in the third quarter but Hausauer played a completely solid game having a game high 15 points leading Wilton to the win 54-37.
The Miners celebrated the win but knew what was up ahead of them in the second round. The Turtle Lake-Mercer-McClusky Trojans. The team no one in the district could beat in the regular season. The Miners had lost to TLMM a few weeks earlier 50-34. This game turned out to be one of the best games the Miners would play all season. Turtle Lake’s high-powered offense led by Mariah Sellon opened the game as they have throughout. Long rebounds turned into fast-break opportunities and the Trojans went to work, scoring quickly. The Miners did hang around with some great inside play from Paige Hausauer. The momentum swing was right before the half as the Miners inbounded the ball with seconds left and Tonya Dickson was able to bury a three-pointer from the wing at the buzzer. The crowd came to their feet as the lead was cut to four 24-20.
