Coyotes finishes MNAC Tourney strong with convincing win over Knights
BROKEN BOW - After a tough defeat to South Loup in the semifinals of the MNAC tournament, the Class D1 No. 6 Anselmo-Merna girls basketball team did a good job of erasing the memory by defeating Sandhills-Thedford 70-45 on Jan. 30 in the third-place game of the MNAC Tournament at North Platte Community College.
“We decided to walk out there with confidence and bounce back today,” A-M player Jaide Chandler stated.
In the first quarter, it was the Coyotes who built a six-point lead thanks to two free-throws by Chandler and a layup in transition by Kaitlyn Jacquot. After back to back baskets by Claire Cooksley and Chandler A-M led 12-4.
Emily Leach put a little dent in the lead for the Knights with a jump shot she was able to connect on.
S-T was able to get back to within three at 14-11 when the Coyotes decided to go on another one of their runs to close the quarter out. Cooksley’s driving basket and then Shaylyn Safranek’s layup inside put A-M up 20-11 after one quarter.
For the first time in the game, the Coyotes found themselves up by double digits after Hadlee Safranek made a layup in transition off a steal. Chandler was able to follow that up with a three-pointer.
Despite getting a basket by Emily Martindale to end the half, the Knights still found themselves trailing 39-21 at intermission.
Out of the break, S-T made the first basket when Cylee Jameson scored on a drive to the basket. On the ensuing possession, Jacquot added two of her eight points in the game and extended A-M’s lead to 42-23.
Overall, the third was the best quarter of the game offensively for the Knights with 16 points. The only issue is they continued to struggle to slow down the Coyotes who scored 15 points in the quarter.
Leading 54-37 heading to the fourth, A-M’s offense continued to click on all cylinders.
Midway through the quarter, Tenley Rasmussen made a shot in the corner for S-T and Cooksley scored inside for the Coyotes. Two free-throws by Hadlee Safranek gave A-M a 68-42 advantage.
Off the bench, freshman Riley Marsh was able to make the final basket of the contest for the Coyotes.
The 70 points A-M finished with, was over twenty points better than their season average of 49.8 points per game. A big reason for the scoring outbreak was the transition baskets made possible by 13 steals in the game for the Coyotes.
A-M also did a very good job of distributing the ball to multiple players, with six different Coyotes finishing with over five points. According to Cooksley, this is what makes them hard to scout for.
“Most people on our team can score,” Cooksley said. “When other teams look at us they don’t necessarily know who is going to be the leading scorer. Everybody knows their place and works really hard to fulfill their role.”
Despite the scoring outburst by A-M, Jacquot said the Knights put up a very tough fight in their second meeting of the season. She hopes a win like this will continue to give her team confidence.
“Honestly this was a lot tougher than the first game,” Jacquot said. “I think one of the main reasons for that was the stakes being so high with conference. It felt great to just get a big win and hopefully, that keeps us rolling the rest of the regular season and then on to sub-districts.”
Scoring in double figures for the Coyotes in the game was Chandler with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Shaylyn Safranek with 15 points. Rasmussen had 15 points for S-T.
A-M is at home vs Twin Loup at 6 p.m. on Feb. 4 and the Knights have a road game at 6 p.m. on Feb. 4 at Mullen.