Kittson County Central uses tough defense to defeat Lake of the Woods in the Section 8A quarterfinals

The Kittson County Central Bearcats scored the first 9 points of the game and never looked back as they defeated the Lake of the Woods Bears by a score of 65-24 at the Ralph englestad Arena in the Section 8A Quarterfinals.

FIRST HALF –
The pace was a bit slow to start, but after a couple minutes, the Bearcats scored the first seven points of the game and forced a very early LOTW timeout. After said timeout, KCC got the lead to 9-0 before the first Bears point. The defenses were tough on both sides, and the lead stayed at 9-1 until Greta Kuznia hit a three-pointer to put the Bearcats up 12-1. The Bears cut the lead to 12-3 before the Bearcats began to feed the very skilled Kaydence White, who put back her own miss to but KCC back up 11. From there, both offenses went quiet with missed shots and turnovers, until the Bears made a free throw to make the score 14-4 KCC with 9 minutes to go. With 8 minutes left, Kendall Bowman hit a three-pointer to make it 14-7, and from there, the two teams began alternating buckets until White converted a three-point play to put KCC up 19-9. This seemed to spark some offense in the Bearcats, as another White layup made it 23-9 with 4:38 remaining. The lead stayed at 14 until White put the Bearcats up 27-11 in the final minute of the half. White would then hit another one with 20 seconds, and that gave the Bearcats a 29-11 lead at the half.

SECOND HALF –
The first four minutes of the second half saw the Bearcats pull way ahead with a 14-4 run, with the help of a bucket from Hanna Warnke and a three-pointer from Brenna Turn, and this allowed the Bearcats to pull away to a 43-15 lead. A breakaway layup by Kuznia extended the lead to 30, and the next Kuznia bucket would come at the end of an 11-4 spurt by the Bearcats, where her three-pointer gave the Bearcats a 56-22 lead. A bucket by Sofie Bernstrom put the game into running time, and then two free throws from Aubree Pankratz gave KCC a 60-22 lead. With 6 minutes remaining, Warnke stole the ball and went the distance to give the Bearcats a 40-point lead, and at this point was when coach Mark Johnson began to put his reserves in. The first one to score was Halle Hanson, who gave KCC a 64-22 lead. In the final 4 minutes of the game, only 3 combined points were scored, and the Bearcats easily held on to a 65-24 victory.

KCC improves to 18-9 on the season and will play Sacred Heart in the Section 8A semifinals, with a tentative 7:45 PM start time. You can watch the game on KROX TV or listen to the game on KROX Radio. LOW’s season ends with a 17-9 record.

Greta Kuznia

Afton Lindgren

Hanna Warnke

Kaydence White

Kasey Waling

Aubree Pankratz

Halle Hansen

Greta Kuznia

Afton Lindgren

Hanna Warnke

Kaydence White

Kasey Waling

Aubree Pankratz

Halle Hansen

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