Minnesota West basketball teams host weekend doubleheaders
WORTHINGTON Both the mens and womens basketball teams at Minnesota West Community and Technical College had busy weekends with each playing two games across Friday and Saturday.
They each hosted Minnesota North College-Itasca Friday in a mens/womens doubleheader before facing Northland CTC Saturday.
The womens team went 1-1 over the weekend while the men went 2-0.
ADVERTISEMENT Up next for both teams is the Minnesota West New Years Classic Dec.
30 and 31.
Both days will feature another mens/womens doubleheader with Southwestern Community College Dec.
30 and then North Dakota State College of Science on New Years Eve.
Here is a recap of what happened this past weekend.
Women The Minnesota West womens team remains at a .500 record following a 1-1 showing last weekend.
The Lady Jays (6-6) kicked it off Friday with a 75-32 win over Itasca.
They led by 11 at halftime before a big third quarter that saw them outscore the Vikings 28-3.
They then outscored the Vikings by seven more points in the fourth quarter to match their largest blowout win of the season.
It was a balanced scoring effort from Minnesota West with four players scoring in double figures.
Casey Miller wound up leading them with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
She finished 5-of-9 from the field and added two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Ava Parrish added 13 points with Maddie Kamm and Sadie Krahling each adding 10.
Jayda Hellewell led in rebounds with nine and Rhea Tucker led in assists with four.
Tucker also led a Lady Jay defense that forced 42 Itasca turnovers, getting seven steals.
The team totaled 17 steals and blocked four shots.
ADVERTISEMENT West heavily out-rebounded the Vikings 54-35, including 26-8 on the offensive end.
The Jays also outshot the Vikes 37-27% and out-assisted them 19-6.
Leading the Vikings in scoring was Claire Clusiau with 18 points.
Their record is now 4-8 after the weekend.
On Saturday, the Lady Jays faced a familiar opponent from seasons past in Northland CTC.
The Pioneers played the jays three times last season, including twice in postseason play, and are ranked No.
2 in the latest NJCAA D3 womens poll.
Minnesota West is still fourth in that poll as the top four spots are all occupied by Region 13 teams.
Like was the case in last years regular-season matchup, the Pioneers defeated the Jays 60-45.
It was a poor shooting performance from the Lady Jays, finishing with a field-goal percentage of 26.3%.
The Pioneers shot 41% from the field and also out-rebounded the Jays 42-37.
Krahling paced Minnesota West in scoring with 20 points with Kamm adding 11 points and a team-leading four assists.
Katrina Schutz led in rebounding with eight and Tucker added seven.
Minnesota West also totaled 20 turnovers.
ADVERTISEMENT Hannah Halvorson finished with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds as Rylie Kopp added 17 points and Tiyana Schwinghammer 10 with a team-leading four assists.
Northlands record is now 9-4.
The Lady Jays have one more slate of non-conference games before opening up Minnesota College Athletic Conference South Division play.
After the New Years Classic will be a game against Bethany Lutheran JV Jan.
4 the division opener Jan.
8 in Worthington against M State Fergus Falls.
Men The Bluejays are still off to their best start to a season in years.
They are 12-2 through most of their non-conference schedule, including two more wins last weekend.
The pair of wins also got them into the latest NJCAA Division III mens basketball poll, where theyre ranked 15th.
On Friday, Minnesota West blew out Itasca 81-55 thanks to a strong second-half performance that saw the team pull away.
After taking a seven-point lead into halftime, the Jays outscored the Vikings by 19 points in the second half to secure the 26-point victory.
Minnesota West was much more efficient shooting the ball from the field, finishing with a field-goal percentage of 51.7%.
Itasca shot 38.3% from the field.The Jays also connected on six 3-point shots and out-rebounded the Vikings 33-31.
Four Bluejay players scored in double figures with Keion Irvin and Zackery Rygg leading the way.
Irvin finished with 21 points on 9-of-15 from the field and Rygg had 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
ADVERTISEMENT Zach Hayenga added 10 points and a team-high six rebounds and Karasharo Ojulo finished with a team-high six assists.
Henry Counsel also chipped in eight points and six rebounds.
Deondre Wallace contributed off the bench for the Bluejays, scoring 14 points in 21 minutes on 4-of-5 from the field.
Leading the Vikings in scoring were Luka Goshadze and Gohan Sawyer with 19 points and 14 points respectively.
Goshadze also grabbed nine boards and finished with three assists.
Itascas record after the weekend is 4-9.
Minnesota West followed up their third-largest blowout win of the season with a more narrow win over Northland on Saturday.
The Bluejays defeated the Pioneers 71-65.
In that game, the Jays again took a lead into halftime, outscoring the Pioneers by eight points before the break.
Northland then tried to cut into that lead in the second half, outscoring West 37-35, but the Jays got the win in the end.
Hayenga led the Bluejays with 23 points on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting from the field.
He also grabbed a team-high six rebounds and made the teams only three 3-point shots.
Irvin added 19 points on 5-of-9 shooting and Ojulo had five assists.
The Bluejays were again efficient from the field, shooting 52.2% as they extended their winning streak to six games.
Since their last loss to Lake Region State College Nov.
22, Minnesota West has won its last six games by an average of just over 10 points a game.
Northland with the loss fell to 4-10.
ADVERTISEMENT The Minnesota West men will also move into MCAC South Division play after the New Years Classic.
The first game will be Jan.
8 in Worthington against Fergus Falls.
The Fergus Falls mens team is currently 10-1 on the season..
This article has been shared from the original article on dglobe, here is the link to the original article.