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Viking girls sink Pirates 61-56 in OT, off to state [UPDATED]
Published 12:06pm Sunday, March 10, 2013 Updated 12:07pm Monday, March 11, 2013BEMIDJI – The Pelican Rapids girls basketball team came back after a 27-22 halftime deficit in the Section 8AA championship Friday night, defeating the Crookston Pirates 61-56.
After the Pirates played strong in the first half, the Vikings fought back to tie the game at 50 points a piece within the final minutes. Viking Alyssa Huseby hit a shot at the buzzer to break the tie, but as Pelican celebrated the apparent victory officials waved it off, sending the teams into overtime.
With the game gone to extra minutes, the Vikings took over and outscored the Pirates 11-6, giving them the victory and a trip to compete in the Class AA Tournament in Minneapolis next Wednesday.
Freshman standout Mackenzie Korf continued her dominant end of the year play for Pelican Rapids with a 15 point, 10 assist double-double. She also had seven rebounds and stole the ball from the Pirates three times.
Kendra Weinrich and Lincoln Haiby contributed double digits in scoring for the Vikings, putting in 12 and 11, respectively. Haiby also pulled down 9 boards. Sommer Haugrud and Madison Korf scored 8, both hitting from beyond the arc with a couple of threes. Huseby put in 7 for the Vikings and ended the night with 9 boards.
The Pirates outshot the Vikings 42 percent to 40 percent from the field, but the Viking’s streak in the second half and overtime proved to be too much for the Crookston’s defense.
Pelican Rapids improves to 21-7 on the year and will play at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night in their first game of the state tournament at Williams Arena. They will face off against New Richland/Heartland-Ellendale-Geneva, who has only one loss in their 30 games this season. The Panthers are the number two ranked team in Class AA.
