On Friday night the North Branch/Rush City girls hosted Princeton in a Mississippi 8 Conference matchup.
Both teams came in looking for a very important win late in the season. The Vikings wasted no time getting the lead and gave it up only a few times but never longer than 30 seconds. Both sides had their fair share of runs, the Vikings used one to extend their lead into double digits. But Princeton made a run of their own just before half, which cut their deficit down to 4 at halftime 29-25.
The Vikings came out of the half looking like a team with something to prove. Once again they extended their lead to double digits and had the Tigers on the ropes. With a few well called timeouts Princeton was able to close the gap to single digits. It wasn't long before NB/RC quickly turned up the heat and again lead by double digits. The Vikings held this double digit lead late into the game. That's when the Tigers came to life their offense was running smooth and the defense locked them down. With only a few minutes left the Vikes only had a one point lead. The teams would trade buckets and the lead. With about a minute left the Vikings were down by two. But Isabella Folkema wouldn't allow her team to go down quietly hitting a clutch 3 with under 10 seconds left. They would make a stop and get Ella Kuhlman to the free throw line where she'd hit one of two, to extend the lead to two points. NB/RC called a timeout to get ready for anything Princeton would to try to throw at them. Out of the break the Tigers had the perfect play call, dishing it out to Laurkin Adickes for a clutch three of her own giving the lead back to Princeton. With little to no time left the Vikings had one last chance. Unfortunately they couldn't get a shot off in time and Princeton escaped with the win 61-60.
In the game with one of her final free throws Ella Kuhlman became the North Branch girls basketball all time leading scorer! She passed Kelly (Lines) Johnson as the new leader, Kelly was in attendance to congratulate Ella on surpassing her record!
With the loss NB/RC fall to 7-17. Despite the loss the team was in relatively good spirits for their teammate become the new all time leading scorer. They'll be on the road for their final two games of the season. Tuesday night at Monticello and Thursday at St. Francis.
For Princeton they move to .500 at 12-12. They'll split their last two games of the season on the road Thursday at Zimmerman then Friday at home vs St. Francis.
Scoring:
NB/RC
Kayla Diedrich 30
Ella Kuhlman 18
Isabella Folkema 10
Johanna Bartkey 2
Princeton
Willa Waytashek 19
Lillian Tidrick 14
Larkin Adickes 12
Sadie Meyer 9
Kyleigh Noble 5
Kelsey Wudtke 2
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