By Bruce Karnick

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The final three games for the Raider girls ended up being tough ones. After defeating South St. Paul on Feb 16, the Raiders fell to Mahtomedi on Feb. 18, 90-54. That was the first of their three-game losing streak to end the season.

The Hill Murray game scheduled for Feb. 22 was pushed back to Feb. 24 because of the snowstorm that hit the area on Tuesday. In discussing the final three games, Coach Sheri McLeod talked about implementing some different tactics to use in the section tournament. She had been warned by many people that once she gets to the section meeting, McLeod explained her approach against Hill Murray and how the girls reacted after the game.

“My whole game plan was to shut Ella Runyon down. So that’s pretty much what we did. Looking at stats from that game, we actually had a higher percentage for shots. So, I had the girls look at the stats. They’re like, ‘dang Coach free throws and rebounds.’ Yep, that’s exactly what killed us. Even though we shot more free throws, we missed more free throws. And they out rebounded us on the defensive end. So literally, they got put backs. When we should have boxed out and just gotten the ball,” McLeod said.

Hastings had a nine-point margin to make up after the first half against the Pioneers, and they still had to keep Runyon from scoring like she did the first time they faced her when she scored 37 points in the second half alone. The defensive plan did work. Runyon only scored 19 total points the whole game and Hastings had a chance to win at the end with the final being 47-44 in favor of Hill-Murray.

The takeaway from the game came after McLeod had her meeting with the girls and went over the stats with them. To have high school students look at what you have been teaching them the entire season and figure out the problems themselves was awakening.

“I was screaming for joy. It’s like, you guys, if you only knew how talented you are,” said McLeod with a huge smile in her voice. “I also know that they like having the onus put back on them. I’ve been saying for the last three weeks, it’s your destiny, it is up to you to win or lose. I can’t do it out on the floor. So, either you’re going to play well or you’re not going to play well, that is up to you.”

Leading scorers for Hastings against Hill Murray were Lilly Nuytten with 16 and Keagan McVicker with 10. Unfortunately for the Raiders, Nuytten hurt her shoulder in the game and sat out a good portion.

Against Simley, Coach McLeod implemented a similar approach to shut down the Spartans leading scorer, Acheampomaah Danso. Hastings had the lead 27-24 headed into the intermission. But that is where it stopped. An injury to Magie Scholttman, the injury to Nuytten in the previous game and starters fouling out had sealed the Raider fate. Hastings only scored 12 points in the second half, and they fell 48-39. Coach McLeod was not happy with the things that could not be controlled but when she spoke on the JV players stepping up, she was ecstatic.

“It’s a very good sign because we’re young. We’re very, very young. So, for us to only have like, you know, two varsity players on the floor, and then the rest of whoever’s in the game is JV. I’m proud of them of how they played. I’m proud that, you know, they still held their composure. I’m proud of the JV players that got there, and they did their job. They were supposed to do. I can’t ask for more than that as a coach,” she explained.

The loss at Simley gave the Raiders a final season record of 15-10, 10 more wins than last year and left them with the fourth most wins in Section 3AAAA. Rosemount was 21-5 in first place, Eagan was 17-9 in Emma Bakker is fouled by Chomp Danso late in the second half of a very physical game where the Raiders lost 39-48 to Simley to end the season. Photo by Bruce Karnick second, Park was 15-11 at third and Hastings was fourth at 15-10. After Hastings was Bloomington Jefferson at 9-17, Eastview at 8-18 Burnsville at 6-17 and Apple Valley at 1-25.

The majority of the state places team in their section using the QRF number. QRF is the Quality Ranking Formula. The section ranked out as above based on the QRF. But Section 3AAAA does things differently and it is unclear why. Had the rankings been the way they should be, Hastings would be the fourth seed. The section uses a voting system instead. So, teams that are out of the top three spots need to lobby for their position and it’s ultimately in the hands of the other coaches. It ended up that Hastings received the sixth seed behind two teams that combined barely had more wins than Hastings alone. Bloomington Jefferson was voted to have the fourth seed at 9-17 and Eastview was the fifth seed at 8-18 while Hastings got pushed down to the sixth seed at 15-10. It’s something that seems to happen to Hastings far more frequently than it should.

Coach McLeod was not happy. She questioned why they even bother to go with the QRF during the season when it means nothing. The wins meant nothing; it’s all based on who likes who better. When she told the team, they were not happy.

“I think we’ll be alright. The girls are hungry. They want this win now, and they’re mad. They knew I was going to fight for them. They’re like ‘coach we have no doubt in our mind that you’re going to fight and you’re going to get us where we should get and if we don’t, you’re going to be mad’ and so now they know I’m mad, now it’s time to get after it on Monday,” added McLeod.

The sixth seed in the section just added insult to injury and hopefully fuels the Raiders to victory and to state. As the sixth seed, they travel on March 2 to Park of Cottage Grove to take on the Wolfpack at 7 p.m.

A win Wednesday night and the Raiders will play again on March 5 at 7 p.m. against the winner of Eagan and Burnsville.