LE SUEUR-HENDERSON 55, CLEVELAND 53

The Monday after Thanksgiving is not a popular time to schedule

games. In Minnesota there were six on the docket. There was nothing with the bigger schools, and nothing in the metro, so I opted for the highest level game out there. That meant an AA contest with an A team. LeSueur-Henderson (the AA team) was hosting county neighbor Cleveland. The home town Giants were in the midst of a 41 game losing streak. LSH’s last win came on January 12, 2016. Then came 15 losses followed by an entire 2016-17 season without a W. That changed tonight when Gabby Straub hit a put back with 1.5 seconds left to break the hex. It wasn’t always so nerve racking for LSH today. The Giants led 37-22 at the break. The ebb and flow of the game was established in the first half. LSH was up 18-9 with nine minutes left in the half. The Clippers, behind a couple of 3s by Caitlin Brink, cut that margin to 18-16 and LSH was forced to call time out at the 7:39 mark. Brink would end up the leading scorer of the contest with 19 points. Brink plays with MN Nice during the club season, a year under the Ayoka Lee team. After the time out the Giants responded with a 17-6 finish to the half. They would need 18 minutes to score 18 points in the second half. Cleveland found new life in the second half by crashing the offensive glass. Sometimes it took four cracks at scoring before the ball found its way to the bottom of the net. LSH struggled with turnovers (which Cleveland converted—at least once in a while) and at the free throw line. Fouls piled up for Cleveland, but LSH didn’t seize advantage only cashing in at a 26% rate on 23 attempts. Julia McCabe scored from the left side of the floor on a second chancer and that gave Cleveland their first lead (51-50) and caused heartburn for the LSH faithful. The Giants took a time out, but there was a lot of time left (five minutes) to augment that heartburn. LSH went back in front on their own put back by Acy Adamzak. With 28 seconds left and LSH nursing a 53-51 lead, the Giants decided to press. Cleveland broke it on the first pass and Emmie Dittmar tied it with a shot on the right side. LSH called time with 21 seconds left. Straub hit the game winner with 1.5 ticks left. That was after the officials put time back on the clock with Cleveland calling time. This time Cleveland did not get the ball past half court.

Besides the nail biting action, the fans at half time witnessed something that doesn’t happen every day: three different fans hit half court shots—-IN A ROW. The odds of hitting one half court shot are 1 in 100. If I am doing the math correctly that is a 1 in 1,000,000 happening.

Team	PP100	scorer	Distributor	D stops
LeSueur-Henderson	65.5	Gabby Straub 16	Halle Bemmels 12	Gabby Straub 15
Cleveland	61.6	Caitlin Brink 19	Caitlin Brink 5	Rachael Kunkel 12

Trench player: The 41 game drought is over in LSH with Gabby Straub’s basket. Straub came off the bench for 16 points.

I can write more when there is only one contest. With the multitude of games over the weekend (and next few weekends), the content becomes limited.