More scenes from the Staples-Motley win last night

Macy Weller won the tip off for Sauk Centre, sending the ball down to Kali Peschel (#25).

Jena Klaphake drives to the hoop. Her defensive prowess shined all night against a very physical Staples-Motley team.

Macy Weller interview with Bryan Zollman after the win and trophy ceremony...

Free T-Shirts to first 200 fans at Thursday's boys' playoff opener

The first 200 fans Thursday will receive free t-shirts courtesy of Knobby Sports.

Get there early as this has the makings of a classic match-up! The No. 4 seeded Mainstreeters (16-8) will take on the No. 5 seeded Albany Huskies (12-12) in the Sub-Section 6AA-North quarterfinals. Both teams have defeated each other on the other's court this season.

Sauk is coming off a thrilling 59-57 win over Long Prairie-Grey Eagle last Friday.

Thursday's game is at 7 p.m. in Sauk Centre. The winner advances to play Saturday at St. John's University in the semifinal round.

Celebrating a sub-section title

Coach Bergman high fives Rebecca Moe following the Mainstreeters' 58-48 win over Staples-Motley last night.

...and two clips from the 1st half...Jordan Gamradt hitting on the arc and then Macy Weller from the paint on a rebound putback...

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.

South sub-section title girls' basketball game goes to overtime at St. John's

An update from St. John's University...the NL-S Wildcats are mounting a comeback against Litchfield in the Sub-Section 6AA-South championship.

The Wildcats endured a very difficult first half, giving up a major scoring run to the Dragons that erased an early 10-6 NL-S lead. Taylor Thunstedt of NL-S picked up her second personal foul with 10:10 left, and the resulting free throw made it 18-10 in favor of Litchfield.

The Litchfield surge lasted 16 points, resulting in a 23-10 lead for the Dragons after Jordan Peterson knocked in a three with 8 minutes left.

Olivia Setterberg ended the 16-0 run with a free throw, and her fastbreak bucket with 6 minutes left then made it a 23-13 deficit. She hit inside a minute later to make it 25-15.

Shelbie Walsh hit a three to keep Litchfield in the driver's seat, up 28-15, and then Thunstedt hit a runner with 2:20 left to make it 32-17.

Amanda Radel gave her Wildcats team a lift with a three-pointer to make it 34-20, but Litchfield scored the final five points before halftime to make it 39-20 at the break. Fun fact: in the earlier meeting between these two teams, Litchfield led 34-14 at halftime before going on to lose in regulation play.

**Update at 6:55pm...the Wildcats have cut the deficit down to 46-35 in the 2nd half!

**And now it's tied at 48-48!

NL-S ultimately took a brief 51-50 lead in the final two minutes, but Walsh hit a three to put the Dragons back on top 53-51 with 1:00 left.

At the end of regulation, NL-S and Litchfield were tied at 53-53. With 14 seconds left in the second half, Taylor Thunstedt drove in for a layup to force the overtime period. Adding to the drama, with .5 seconds left, a traveling call was applied to Litchfield that essentially ended regulation play.

Final score: Litchfield 60, NL-S 53 in overtime. Thunstedt finished with 31 points. The Wildcats, whose starting five of Jessica Johnson, Lydia Kieft, Amanda Radel, Olivia Setterberg and Amanda Radel all began the four-minute overtime, were stifled in the difficult extra period.

Litchfield takes a 20-8 record into the Section 6AA final, while NL-S ended another fine season of basketball with a 19-9 record. The Wildcats finished 6-4 (second) in the very tough West Central North Conference. They've had winning records in conference play every year as members of the West Central Conference dating back to 1982.

Who's excited for playoff basketball? Things heat up considerably for local hoops teams this week

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

A total of four nights this week have the potential to bring a considerable amount of excitement to the Sauk Centre community, as the girls' and boys' basketball teams battle for playoff success.

It starts tonight, when the Mainstreeter girls' basketball team takes on 8th-ranked Staples-Motley in the Sub-Section 6AA-North championship game. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. at St. John's University. Both teams hold a 23-4 record.

(Below) A glimpse of the Sauk Centre win over Albany on Saturday night...courtesy of Herman Lensing of the Melrose Beacon.


The Mainstreeter boys' basketball team hosts I-94 and conference rival Albany at 7 p.m. this Thursday night in the Sub-Section 6AA-North quarterfinal round.

**If you can't make it to St. John's tonight, one great option for Sauk Centre-area fans is to catch the action on your local DTV 20 station, courtesy of Arvig. They will broadcast all Sauk Centre girls' basketball playoff games, with the hope like we all have that the team will make another deep run as they have the past two seasons!

Stay tuned for more coverage of our Sauk Centre basketball teams throughout the week both here and in this week's March 8 issue of the Sauk Centre Herald.

Coach Bergman talks about Sauk Centre playoff basketball

Bryan Zollman interview with Sauk Centre girls' basketball coach Scott Bergman on Monday morning...

Tip-off for Tuesday night's game at St. John's University is at 7:45 p.m. The first game of the night pits New London-Spicer against Litchfield for the Sub-Section 6AA-South championship game.