The new near for Hastings Girls Basketball has already been bittersweet with one game in the books for 2025. The sweet part of that is senior Haley Strain joining fellow senior Keagan McVicker in the illustrious 1,000-point club. For a class to have one 1,000-point scorer it typically says something about the player, to have two in the same class adds focus to the team and the program. The bitter part was how the game ended against Hill-Murray.
The game against Hill-Murray was a true tale of two halves. Hastings dominated the Pioneers in the first half. The Raiders had every player on Hill-Murray flustered beyond belief.
“Even last year playing against Hill, you know, one of the messages pregame was, just be physical. They outsized us in a few spots, but just battle, be physical. Contest shots, close out, jam cutters coming through the lane,” said Head Coach Rick Tavernier
Hill-Murray is a team with three great athletes who can score, shut them down and you have a good chance to win. Mya Wilson, Ashlee Wilson and Elise Groppoli lead the Pioneers in scoring with the trio averaging more than 48 of the Hill-Murray scoring per game.
“We knew Hill Murray was kind of a three-person team with Groppoli and the Wilson Sisters, and they were broke, thank goodness, from the outside, we played solid man defense, switched to zone a few times, drove them off guard, started chipping away a little bit, building the lead,” added Tavernier.
The younger Wilson sister, Ashlee, was visibly frustrated several times in the first half of the game and she was held to a total of eight points the entire game.
The frustrations were on both sides of the ball and the first half of the game was overall a low scoring affair with Hastings having the lead 21-17 at the half.
“At halftime, we weren't going to change much,” said Tavernier. “We expected them to, especially Maya Wilson, to attack the lane more, which she did, and Haley hit her 1000 point, and then I think the emotions of that, the big lead, just the atmosphere, got to us a little bit. But, you know, we let it slip away. I couldn't be more proud of the girls playing against a solid team.”
Hastings came out firing and they held on to the lead well into the second half. With 10:02 remaining, Haley Strain scored her 1000th career point and the Raiders had a 16-point lead, 39-23.
As Tavernier stated, that was when the game slipped away. Maya Wilson did exactly what the Raiders feared, she took control of the game. Add to it, the Raiders committed 28 turnovers and struggled at the free throw line going 6 for 15. That combination set up the last minute of play for this game.
Hastings had the lead 56-54 with less than a minute to play and Hill-Murray was able to tie game up with another Raider turnover. A little back and forth and some fouls both gave the Raiders hope and took hope away. Both teams had some scoring chances and ultimately, with 1.2 Hastings had their last chance to tie with a hail Mary type throw, Hastings fell short, losing 58-56 in heart breaking fashion.
In the loss, Haley Strain led the Raiders with 24 points and 23 rebounds, Keagan McVicker scored 10 with eight rebounds. Piper Brockman tallied eight points with four rebounds and Violet Schult scored seven.
As bitter as the loss is for Hastings, there are two redeeming pieces to the story. Coach Tavernier pointed out that they will see the Pioneers one more time this season on the road, giving the Raiders one more chance to steal a win from the top team in the Metro East. The other sweet piece was mentioned a few times prior, Strain’s road to 1,000 career points.
Coach Tavernier was not going to talk to Strain about it before the game, “I was pretty sure she was aware that it was approaching. We've kind of been planning for it the last couple games. I did end up chatting with her, because in the back of my mind, I figured this might be a close game, and I ran it by her and her parents. If it's close, under a few minutes, and we have momentum, we might not stop the game. I brought that up to Haley. She said she was fine with it. Long story made a little longer. We scrapped that idea. We were going to stop the game no matter what. Thank goodness she hit it at just before the 10-minute mark in the second half.”
Strain is one of the most levelheaded kids around, does not get too high or too low, definitely errs toward the happier dispositions no matter what the situation is, so it was strange to see her be a little nervous at the start of the game. She needed 16 points to hit 1,000 for her career and Hastings had 17 games left in the season counting that game against Hill-Murray. She was going to hit 1,000 points, if it wasn’t against Hill-Murray, it was going to be Simley or Owatonna. Thankfully, it was not the last game of her career for that added pressure.
With each point scored, the Raider bench and fans got louder and louder, and by the time the first half was over, she had scored 11 of the needed 16 points, so, it was just a matter of time. The players on the floor played their game, not really focusing on the landmark. Strain took her normal spot, in the paint, under the basket waiting for the rebound to put it back in or kick it back out to someone else. McVicker really wanted to see her friend hit the 1,000-point mark and even she was passing the ball around with a ‘win the game first’ kind of mentality.
1,000 and 1,001 came on a normal Strain play, a shot was made from the perimeter and that bounced off the rim for Strain to make the rebound. The rebound came down and with a Pioneer draped all over her, she made the layup causing the fieldhouse to go crazy.
It was super fitting and even more sweet to see McVicker be the first person to celebrate with Strain with a huge hug. Play stopped for a moment as the bench cleared to mob strain, grab a few pics and continue the game.
After the game, Strain was not sure how to handle the spotlight, even trying to get a post-game interview with her was difficult because that is just not her thing. She just wants to let her play do the talking for her, but that is not always how it works, especially when you hit a career milestone like this.
How does it feel to have 1,000 points? “I don’t know,” she laughed, “um… it feels good.”
She clearly needed a little help with her first ever ‘true interview’ as she looked around nervously for someone to come save her. For the record, a few of her teammates and her mom were right there, so that may have added to the nervousness, and it certainly added to the laughter.
She quickly found the words, “It feels really good. Thanks to all of my teammates for everything they have done, I love every single one of them.”
Strain went on to celebrate the night with a large family contingent that came to witness the milestone.
Up Next
The next chance to catch the Raider girls in action is Jan. 9 for the final game of their four-game home stand against Owatonna at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 10 they travel to North St. Paul for a 6:30 p.m. tip, then Jan 13. The road trip continues as they head to Buffalo for a 7:00 p.m. tip. They earn a three day break before heading to Tartan for a 6:30 p.m. tip on Jan. 17.