2019 Minnesota Girl's State Tournament - Class A Quarterfinal Game Recap - Mountain Iron-Buhl vs Goodhue 3-14-19

In something of a rare appearance, I decided to jaunt over to the Maturi Pavilion side of things after taking in the exciting finish of the Class AAA semifinal between Holy Angels and De La Salle to cover this Class A Quarterfinal Game between Mountain Iron-Buhl and Goodhue; both teams very familiar with this state tournament setting - and both with a lot of success in recent years.  And given that I don't often get to cover the smaller schools, I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do just that.

The Rangers would get off to a decent start in this one; getting a 4-0 lead early on but Goodhue would have this game tied at 4-all by the 14:50 mark and one free throw by sophomore Arianna Thomforde allowed the Wildcats to poke their nose out in front 5-4 a bit later and Thomforde would continue to be a pain in the side for Mountain Iron-Buhl as the expanded their lead to 10-5 by the 12:42 mark and prompted Rangers' Head Coach Jeff Buffetta to burn a thirty-second timeout.  That short stoppage in play allowed Mountain Iron-Buhl to crawl back to within a single possession down 12-9 but Goodhue was able to get some more breathing room at 15-9 when senior guard Kate Opsahl connected with a long lay-up near the 8:00 mark.  The Rangers still managed to stay within striking distance down 19-14 with just under 5:00 left in the first half and with 3:33 left Mountain Iron-Buhl had closed the cap down to a single point at 19-18 but the Wildcats found some solid footing down the stretch and a drive and finish by sophomore guard Elissa Lodermeier with 1:41 left drew a foul and her "and one" got the Wildcat safety net up to eight points at 26-18.  Two free throws by Opsahl allowed Goodhue to take a nice 28-19 lead into the locker room with them at the halftime break.  A check of the first half box score shows a very balanced scoring attack for Goodhue with 6'3" senior Lexie Lodermeier leading the way with seven points while younger sister Elissa Lodermeier had six points.  Such was the case with Mountain Iron-Buhl as well as senior Madison Bennett lead the way with her six points and fellow senior Macy Savela had five points.  Perhaps a sore spot for the Rangers' Buffetta and his staff was that his team was getting outrebounded by a 19-14 count thus far and the 8-27 shooting from FG range for 29.6% was going to have to come up as well.

Goodhue expanded their lead to 32-21 when freshman Joslyn Carson hit a big "3" from the right corner early on in the second half but the Rangers managed to get the gap down to seven points on a big "3" by senior Madison Overbye at the 13:49 mark that made it 32-25.  Goodhue, however, got their lead back up to double-digits again at 36-25 by the 11:45 mark and the Rangers fortunes took another dip when Bennett would pick up her fourth foul by the 11:20 mark.  More disaster would strike Mountain Iron-Buhl when Overbye was down with an injury at the 10:59 mark with an apparent ankle injury and although she was able to walk off under her own power, her status to return seemed uncertain at the time.  Two big three-point shots by the Rangers allowed Mountain Iron-Buhl to cut the deficit down to single-digits again at 40-33 with just under nine minutes left and a score in the paint by senior Allie Negen soon reduced that deficit to five points at 40-35.  The Rangers were still within striking distance down six at 43-37 with 7:18 left and had slimmed the deficit even further down to five at 46-41 with 5:10 left.  With 3:09 left, Mountain Iron-Buhl remained in that five-point range down 48-43 and the game was just dangerous enough for the Wildcats that some of their turnovers and mistakes were starting to loom larger.  With 1:30 left, Bennett knocked down a jumper from the right side that reduced the deficit to three points at 48-45 and now things were becoming quite precarious for Goodhue.  With :17.1, senior guard Allie Negen drained a "3" from the left top area that pulled the Rangers to one point down 49-48 and now it was up to Mountain Iron-Buhl to try and get a stop.  Goodhue sophomore guard Torrie Rehder knocked down the front end of two free throw attempts after getting fouled with :10 left and the Rangers had an immediate chance to get this one tied up or take the lead but an untimely turnover killed their chances on that.  Opsahl would get fouled with :06.3 left and although she couldn't get either free throw to go down, the Wildcats would foil Mountain Iron-Buhl's last-gap attempt to get out of Dodge and advance to the semifinals with a thrilling 50-48 victory. 

A glance of the final box score shows that the Rangers picked up their FG shooting in the second half as they finished the game going 20-53 for 37.7%  Still, Goodhue had a slight edge on the boards by a 33-28 count and, somewhat surprisingly, turnovers evened themselves out as Mountain Iron-Buhl committed 17 and Goodhue 18.  The one danger sign for the Wildcats was some shaky free throw shooting; finishing 16-26 for 61.5%.  The only reason they got away with that this time around is that Mountain Iron-Buhl got to the charity stripe only six times in this contest; going 3-6.  Obviously, that's huge but realistically, you've got to do better at the free throw line in the next round because I don't think you can always count on having your opponent getting to the line so few times.  Again, Goodhue had a pretty balanced scoring attack on this night with Lexie Lodermeier's 11 points leading the way.  Negen's 15 points led all scorers on this day as she led the way for Mountain Iron-Buhl in the losing effort and Bennett finished with 11 points.  When I spoke with Goodhue Head Coach Josh Wieme afterward in the makeshift press conference room afterward, I asked him first about the possible experience factor given the recent success the program has had - particularly after the run to the state title two years ago - was maybe a calming influence for his team.  "Well, actually, because we have a lot of sophomores and freshmen playing, the last two minutes was kind of a what's what of not to do at the end of a game....It's just young players that have a good day.....On the other hand, they've (Mountain Iron-Buhl) have got some seniors that were making plays and knew they were never out of it and knew it was never over."  I did ask Wieme specifically about the shaky free throw shooting that his Goodhue team had coming down the stretch.  "Our final total was 16-26 and they were 3-6.  That's been us all year.  We don't allow the other team to shoot a lot....Yeah, we'd like to make more of those and our kids are trying but we don't give the other team a lot of opportunities to get there."  I also had a chance to briefly touch base with Goodhue's Lexie Lodermeier as well and asked her about the pressure her team felt when Mountain Iron-Buhl started getting close toward the end.  She mentioned that she was forced to go out to the high post to pick up some of the Rangers cutters that were starting to get opportunities for short- and mid-range jumpers.  Can this Goodhue team win it all again?  You can't completely count them out.  They'll have to tweak a few things defensively, IMHO, and that charity stripe shooting will have to come up if they get in another close game again.  One thing I did want to mention - props to Goodhue's Wieme for bringing on former Goodhue and GAC standout All-American Mikayla Miller onto the Goodhue coaching staff.  I can't think of anyone better who can not only relate to these players not only on a playing level but on a personal level as well and who can bring a high basketball IQ to the team as well and be that calming, supportive influence on the bench in tough affairs.  And someone who can still easily ball out and give those players some tough comp on the floor in practices, too.