The first game of the night session at Williams Arena on this Friday night featured the #1 seed New Richland-H-E-G going up against #4 seed Howard Lake-Waverly Winsted. The defending state champion Panthers are led by none other than Carly Wagner who is bound to be a Minnesota Golden Gopher this next season playing right here on this floor. The Lakers, decided underdogs in this one, got here by virtue of their quarterfinal win over Minnehaha Academy on Wednesday and weren't going to roll over for anyone.
Wagner got her squad off to a 3-0 lead when, on their first possession she calmly walked the ball up the court and routinely dropped a "3" from the top of the key at the 17:16 mark. Surprisingly, however, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted would respond at get out to an 8-3 lead by the 13:26 mark and extend the lead to 11-5 by the 12:25 mark. But the Panthers would stay cool and methodically whittle away at this early Laker foray. Two Carlie Wagner free throws at the 12:14 a mark and an offensive rebound and putback by fellow senior post Paige Overgaard brought New Richland-H-E-G to within two trailing 11-9. Carlie Wagner's younger sister, freshman Maddie Wagner, then unleashed a "3" from the right wing at the 11:10 mark that tied the game at 12-all. The Panthers would then go on a quick 7-0 run; punctuated by Carlie Wagner's lay-up in transition with 9:27 left for a 19-12 New Richland-H-E-G lead.
The Panthers 2-3 zone kept Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted out of sorts on the offensive end and, although the Lakers diminutive 5'3" point guard Abby Miller was able to knock down three free throws with 8:15 left after getting fouled behind the arc, New Richland-H-E-G was able to maintain a 6-7 point cushion. With 7:01 left, Laker hearts broke when senior guard Mackenzie Uter was attempting a lay-up in transition and went down awkwardly and appeared to injure her right knee and had to be helped off the court. With 5:57 left, another Wagner sister made her presence felt: Marnie; Maddie's twin sister (and Carly's younger sis as well) as she uncorked a "3" from the right wing with 5:57 left to extend the Panthers lead to 27-18. To their credit, the Lakers would trim that cushion down to six points trailing 27-21 but a 5-0 burst by New Richland-H-E-G would have the lead to 32-21 when Maddie Wagner grabbed an offensive rebound for a putback with 3:29 left. The Panthers were also in the double-bonus with 2:30 left and, complicating things for Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted was that the Panthers got into the double-bonus with 2:30 left. Still, the Lakers had hopes when Miller let loose with a "3" with 2:20 left that helped Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted get within six trailing 33-27 but a late 7-1 run by New Richland-H-E-G; capped by a jumper in the lane off the glass by junior reserve forward Kelli Harrington with just :23 left allowed the Panthers to take a somewhat commanding 40-28 lead into the locker room at the half. As you would expect, Carlie Wagner paced New Richland-H-E-G with her 16 points but young sis Marnie was right behind with her ten points. Miller's 13 points led the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted attack. The Panthers had a decided 28-18 advantage on the boards which certainly played a part to helping them gain the lead that they had at the half.
New Richland-H-E-G went right to work once the second half got underway....Actually, it would more accurate to say that it was Carlie Wagner who went to work. She connected with a pull-up jumper at the 16:30 mark and was able to get into the paint for another score at the 16:04 mark that got her fouled and allowed her to sink the obligatory freebie for a 45-30 Panther lead. She also added a jumper from the left corner at the 15:07 mark to help maintain the cushion and the 2-3 zone defense that New Richland-H-E-G was employing was making things very difficult for the Lakers inside. Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted's Miller tried to counter that with two treys of her own - one from the left wing at the 15:48 mark and another from the left top area at the 14:50 mark - that got the Lakers to within single digits trailing 47-38 but Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted simply did not have the firepower to keep up when the Panthers. A 7-0 burst by New Richland-H-E-G over the next two minutes now had the Panthers up 54-38 by the 12:28 mark and now the Lakers would be hard-pressed to try and bring this one back.
By the 10:54 mark, the Panthers extended their lead to nineteen at 59-40 when Overgaard was able to snare an offensive rebound for a putback and got fouled in the process and allowed her to sink the obligatory freebie. A Carlie Wagner "3" from the left corner with 9:53 left made it a twenty point cushion at 62-42. Other players were contributing as well. Freshman reserve guard Gretchen Ramaker snared an offensive rebound for a putback with 9:25 left and yet another Carlie Wagner score; a lay-up in transition shortly afterward, had the Panthers up 67-45. With Uter's injury in the first half, the Lakers were robbed of their primary ball-handler and the subsequent turnovers in the second half by Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted reflected that. With 6:34 left, a lay-up in transition by Carlie Wagner gave her 36 points that broke a long-standing tournament scoring record held by Janet Karvonen and, more importantly, had New Richland-H-E-G safely in front by a score of 73-49. With 3:18 left and the outcome all but certain, New Richland-H-E-G Head Coach John Schultz took out his starters and gave the reserves a chance to perform mop-up duty and the Panthers rolled to an 87-56 victory.
The focus afterward in the media session focused on Carlie Wagner breaking the tournament all-time scoring record but Carlie Wagner, in her usual humble way, deflected those accolades that come with it. "The record didn't mean anything to me" she replied when asked about it. I did ask her about how important it was to her and her team getting back to the championship game and defending their state title. "It means everthing in the world to us" she said; adding about how they always take things "one game at a time." Head Coach John Schultz added his thoughts about that saying that "It really takes a lot of the pressure off." I also asked him about what it's like to coach a team that has someone with the ability and caliber of Carlie Wagner. "Carlie has a green light to do anything" he said. He agreed with my assessment that when Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted's Uter went down, things slowly spun out of control for them with turnovers. So Carlie Wagner finishes this night with 41 points in her record-breaking performance while the Lakers' Miller had a tremendous night in a losing effort, pouring in 27 points.
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