Rangers capture the Cardinals with defense

Twice during the regular season, Cromwell-Wright and Mountain Iron-Buhl met on the basketball court with the Rangers winning the first game by eight points and the Cards taking the second game by 20 points.

Thus, the stage was set for last Thursday's Section 7A girls basketball title game at the University of Minnesota Duluth. When the smoke cleared, the Rangers had avenged their late-season loss and retained the section title for the ninth year in a row with a 50-31 win.

A huge key to the win was the Rangers ability to hold down the two top scorers for the Cards: Taya and Shaily Hakamaki. The Rangers devised a scheme of using a triangle-and-two defense in hopes of holding the Hakamaki cousins in check and forcing other players to do the bulk of the scoring for Cromwell-Wright. The effort worked as Taya Hakamaki finished with six points and Shaily Hakamaki ended up with eight points - well below the 20 points plus per game the duo usually average.

A triangle-and-two defense is usually used against a team with two high scoring perimeter players and allows for the defense to play one-on-one defense on the two high scorers with the remaining three defensive players forming a triangle zone defense to help eliminate any ability of the offense to slash to the basket.

"I was a little surprised MIB used a triangle, but thought he might," said Cromwell-Wright coach Jeff Gronner. "I was very surprised at how well they executed the triangle. We needed to have the other girls hit their open shots and have a little better movement and screening for Taya and Shay."

The Rangers took a 23-12 halftime lead and had the normally high-scoring Cards off balance the entire game. MIB was able to get to the loose balls and set the pace of the game, causing issues for Cromwell-Wright.

"We were beaten to most of the loose balls and rebounds for the majority of the game," Gronner said. "They wanted it a little more, it seemed."

Only one player for either team, Macy Savela of MIB, scored in double-digits. She had 19 points. The Rangers shared the offense with nine points from Allie Negen, eight each from Madisen Overbye and Mattison Bennett, three from Brooke Niska and two points each for Sage Ganyo and Miah Gellerstedt.

"Overall it was a very bitter defeat, but it does not diminish the fact that we had a great season," Gronner said. "We beat some very good teams and played at a high level on both ends of the floor all year. We just happened to have had our poor performance in the biggest game of the year, but every team has games like that."

Elizabeth Risacher chipped in from the Cards with six points while Emmalee Hoover scored five. Andrea Pocernich and Jordan Jokinen each had three points.

Prior to last week's loss, the Cards had reeled off 18 straight wins dating back to the loss to MIB back in late December. Cromwell-Wright finished the season with a record of 24-2.