The third game of the day featured defending Class AAAA and Section 3AAAA champ Eastview against the new kid on the block - upstart Andover from the Northwest Suburban Conference and the Section 7AAAA champ. While I have watched the Lightning on a number of occasions, Andover; despite my coverage of the Northwest Suburban Conference, was one of those teams I hadn't seen in action before so it was the unknown factor coming into play yet once again. Still, from a Northwest Suburban Conference perspective it was refreshing to have the Huskies in the field and I was intrigued if they could give the defending champs trouble.
The Andover student section was lively and full of fun once the Huskies got a 2-0 lead and chants of "Overrated!" reverberated throughout Target Center. Unfortunately for the Huskies, however, opa jumper from sophomore reserve guard Rachel Ranke with 7:33 left to make it 21-4 and a score in the paint by strong senior forward Samantha Trammel with 4:28 left made it 26-7. Andover junior reserve forward Alyssa Hostad got one freebie to go down with :58.7 left but it didn't make much of a dent as Eastview took a commanding 29-8 lead into the locker room at the half. Somewhat surprisingly, it was Ranke's 12 points that paced Eastview in this first half steamroll. Shooting 61% as the Lightning did in the first half will generally help out as well. For Andover meanwhile, it was misery across the entire board. 3-22 FG shooting for a frightening 13.6% and 0-5 from behind the arc. Something good was going to have to happen for Belschner's club to keep this thing from getting ugly.
A "3" from the top of the key by sophomore reserve guard Haley Diemer at the 15:06 mark dusted off a few of the cobwebs that were surrounding the Andover rim but the Huskies would need a heckuva lot more of these if they were going to entertain any hope of possibly getting back into this one. As it was, Andover simply had no answer for an experienced, athletic and confident Eastview team that methodically found a variety of ways to score. A "3" from the left wing by senior star guard Madison Guebert at the 11:57 mark and two Guebert charity stripe shots at the 10:31 mark ballooned the Lightning lead to 43-15. Ranke padded her stat sheet with a "3" from the right top area with 8:38 left for a 47-16 Eastview lead and with 7:15 left she struck again from behind the arc - this one from the left wing area and, for good measure, she dropped yet another three-point bomb with 6:43 left from the top of the key for a 53-24 Eastview lead. Lightning Head Coach Melissa Guebert gradually unloaded her bench as did Andover's Belschner and Eastview had it in cruise control the rest of the way with a comfortable 62-28 victory.
I asked Ranke afterward; who paced all scorers with her 23 points, about her shining moment on this afternoon. "My teammates found me and I was just able to make shots" and also adding that "I've always been a shooter." She talked also about how big this win was as well. "Once we all start playing together, we can get back to where we were last year." While Guebert was full of praise for her sophomore sharpshooter, she also placed a lot of the credit to her squad's defensive effort. "We had a very good defensive effort today.....At halftime, we talked about stepping up our pressure." She noted that Andover is a very good shooting team that can get up and down the floor and that her team's defense stalled the Huskie's efforts. I also asked Guebert if having a state title under their belt helps this team more confident. She responded that just having the number of kids back who have had this experience before has really helped. "It's even helped me" she said with a smile. Guebert's daughter; senior Madison added 13 points in the winning effort and the Lightning owned the glass in this one with a resounding 38-22 advantage on the boards.
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