By Bruce Karnick

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Hastings girls basketball had a busy week coming off the win against Two Rivers last Friday. First, a trip to Hill Murray on January 25 where the Raiders lost 75-52. Hastings was down at the half, 30-25, and that is when a halftime adjustment by the Pioneers shutdown the Raider offense. The game finished with Hill Murray on top, 75-52.

Of Hastings’ 52 points, nine came from four players, and 43 from three players. The story of the game was 29 turnovers from the Raiders.

On the scoring side, Lilly Nuytten scored 20, Keagan McVicker had 17 and Maggie Schlottman had six as the top three scorers on the night.

With Nuytten scoring 20 against the Pioneers, excitement was building for an already important matchup against Simley on January 28. Nuytten started her Raider career in seventh grade, quickly catching the eye of coaches. In eighth grade, she scored her first points on varsity. She is now a senior and has committed to Minnesota State Mankato for basketball after graduation. In her five seasons as a varsity player, Nuytten had amassed 989 points as of the end of the Hill Murray game. That meant she had 11 to go for the milestone 1,000 career points, something everyone was waiting for against Simley.

Nuytten credits her current and past teammates for putting her in the position to help the team by scoring as much as she has.

“I would say definitely, just like playing as a team, just like having fun and just playing the game,” Nuytten said regarding the milestone.

With 11 to go for 1,000, would she get it against a conference foe? The game started out with a slower pace, both teams getting a feeling for each other. Trading shots and the lead. Head Coach Sherie McLeod joked before the game that she hoped to see the 1,000th point in the first five minutes to establish a lead and help relax the players. Everyone in the gym was tracking it in their head. Nine left… six left… five left… three left… The nerves were kicking in for everyone too, especially Nuytten. She was pressing a little too hard before the half to try to get the achievement out of the way and focus on the game. Coach McLeod even rested her after a few missed shots and an awkward fall where she got tangled up with a Spartan defender and went down hard, favoring her knee.

The short rest to let her reset and take a breather helped her score a few to get it down to five left before the half. There were a few times where it looked as though the rest of the team was trying to force the ball to Nuytten to help her, but then most of the half was simply playing team basketball. The Raiders were within three, 28-25, at the half.

At halftime, the voice of Raider basketball, Dick Cragg introduced players from the 1996 state championship team. “26 years ago in 1996 Girls Basketball went to the state tournament, the first and only team from Hastings basketball to get into the state tournament. They were 26-3 and beat Osseo in the championship to win the state championship back in 1996.”

In the second half, the Raiders could not buy a basket, missing far too many shots. They just were not falling the right way, even for Nuytten, who was taking quality shots. Then at 8:55 left in the game, with Hastings down 34-42, Nuytten went to the line to shoot two. The first one missed, and you could see the frustration on her face. She knew she just needed one more to join the elite 1,000-point club. She took a deep breath, bounced an extra dribble to clear her mind and… SWISH! 1,000 points!

Nuytten became the eighth Raider to score 1,000 points in her varsity basketball career. That puts her in some pretty elite company, Mallory Brake (1,923 points from 2014-2020) who was the last one to accomplish such a feat, or Erin Ditty (1,604 points from 1993-1997), the first to ever to break 1,000 and Hastings all-time scoring leader, Krystal Carlson, who scored 2,251 from 2013-2018. Nuytten played with the last two.

“But I always like looked up to Mal Brake and Krystal Carlsen and always wanted to at least reach a milestone like they did. It was hard. It’s like hard to think that I got it, because I’ve just like seen the success and where they’ve gone,” she said fighting back the emotion of the moment after the game.

The game paused at the 1,000-point moment, her teammates rushing her and the crowd going crazy.

Once the game resumed, Simley poured on the offense to overwhelm the Raiders, 59-45. Nuytten led Hastings with 16 points, McVicker had 10 and Schlottman had eight to round out the top three scorers. Turnovers played a role again, this time Hastings committed 20 The Raiders travelled to Rochester to take on John Marshall on Saturday afternoon for their third game of the week. The Rockets have two Division 1 basketball commits on the team. The Raiders gave it their all and won in overtime, 8079.

RJM had the lead at the end of the first half, 37-32, but a five-point lead is certainly not insurmountable. Hastings came out fighting in the second half and finished with a 36-31 advantage, tying the game at 68. In the overtime period, all it took was one extra point and the Raiders scored 12 to the Rockets 11 giving the Raiders an 80-79 edge and the win.

The three leading scorers were McVicker and Nuytten with 23 and Schlottman with 14. Hailey Strain led the team with rebounds alongside Nuytten with 10.

Up next for Hastings: At Rosemount Feb. 2, then Feb. 4, they host Tartan, Feb. 8 at North St. Paul and Feb. 9, host Two Rivers. All games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip.