Sauk Centre girls' basketball leads through entire first half...goes on to win third straight sub-section title!

Senior Krista Primus knocked down two buckets straight out of the gates tonight against Staples-Motley to get the Mainstreeters going. The hot start was key to holding a lead through the entire first half.

Sauk Centre has a 14-9 lead after Jordan Gamradt drained a three-pointer with 12 minutes left in the first half. Four reserves are playing right now along with starter Macy Weller.

With 8 minutes left, two free throws by Kali Peschel put Sauk Centre up 20-13.

A 7-0 run then put Sauk Centre ahead 27-18 with 3 minutes left before halftime.

Halftime score at St. John's University: Sauk Centre 30, Staples-Motley 25. Senior Ashley Gruber is leading the Mainstreeters in scoring. Both teams have drained five three-point shots. Noteworthy: Staples-Motley returns four starters from last year's Section 6AA runner-up squad.

Early in the second half, two three-point shots by Staples-Motley put the Cardinals up 31-30. The Cardinals went up 38-34 later in the half.

Senior Lexie Berscheit came off the bench to drain a crucial three-pointer that countered a 38-34 Staples-Motley lead with under 10 minutes to go in the game. Fellow reserve Brianna VonWalde then scored on a backdoor cut to put the Maroon up 39-38 with 9:10 left. They never trailed from there.

What a tense second half! With under 6 minutes to go, Sauk Centre has a 43-39 lead after Ashley Gruber knocked down a rebound shot.

With 84 seconds left, two bonus free throws by Weller put the Mainstreeters up 50-41!

Final score: Sauk Centre 58, Staples-Motley 48! The Mainstreeters (24-4) shot 12-for-12 at the free throw line in the second half to earn the hard-fought win.

Following the win, Coach Bergman commented on BOB FM, "Basketball is a team sport. It takes the whole team to pull off a win like this. We had a lot of girls make some clutch shots tonight. We'll have to be more physical on Friday night, though. Litchfield will be tough."

Up next: the third straight trip to the Section 6AA championship game...coming this Friday with a 6:30 p.m. tip off at St. Cloud State University's Halenbeck Hall. The opponent will be Litchfield, who hails out of the very tough Wright County Conference and has a 20-8 overall record. The WCC consists mostly of Class 3A schools. The Dragons went 10-6 along with Dassel-Cokato in the WCC in a two-way tie for third place. Hutchinson (24-3) and Waconia (20-8), both 3A schools, tied for the conference crown with 15-1 league records. Litchfield averages 56 points a game on offense while giving up 47.6 points a game on defense. They were 9-17 in 2010-2011 and last had a winning record in 2008-2009 when they finished 18-10.

This also marks Litchfield's deepest playoff run since 2003, when they lost to eventual state entrant NL-S 41-34 in the Sub-Section 5AA-20 championship. From 2004 through last season, they were either 0-1 or 1-1 in the postseason. From 2004 to 2006, the Dragons competed in Class 3A for playoffs.

Don't miss out on further coverage of the girls' basketball team's playoff run in this week's March 8 issue of the Sauk Centre Herald.