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Mineral Point's girls basketball team is enjoying some togetherness...finally.
After some down time because of COVID issues the Pointers have actually had a couple practices with everyone there. Head coach Mike Keyes sees this as a chance to regroup for a stretch of tough games to get ready for the post season.
Tuesday night the Pointers rebounded from a tough outing the night before in a loss to Reedsburg and handled Iowa-Grant 66-23. It was the second win over the Panthers in four days.
The Pointers nailed down 13 three pointers with seven different girls getting at least one. Blair Watters led a balanced attack with 14 points, Mallory Lindsey chipped in 11 and Ivy Lawinger contributed 10.
Delaney Ross was the Pointer three point leader with three.
Ashley Runde put in 10 points to lead Iowa-Grant.
Much of the Pointers' success came on the defensive end where they pressured the Panthers and caused several turnovers they turned into points.
Keyes was pleased with his team's cohesiveness.
"I'm happy with our team effort tonight. I thought our energy, from everyone, was fantastic," Keyes said.
Keyes was also pleased with Mineral Point's defensive play.
"We played great defense in the second half and got the ball to the post, which helped our outside game," Keyes added.
The Pointers held the Panthers to just eight points in the final 18 minutes of the game.
Panthers coach Melissa Martinez felt the girls reverted into some old habits that have been unproductive.
"It was a rough night for us," Martinez said. "We fell back into some bad basketball habits and Mineral Point shot the lights out. But even though it was a rough night the girls did not quit."
"This was a tough lesson learned," she added. "We need to stick to our deliberate tempo, value the basketball and not turn it over as much. We also need to execute a solid team defense."
SCORE BY HALVES
Iowa-Grant 15 8 23
Mineral Point 34 34 68
BOX SCORE
IOWA-GRANT 23: (fg-ft-tp)
Jelle 0-0-0, T. Runde 1-0-2, Lenz 0-0-0, Barr 0-0-0, Vavricka 0-0-0, Vivian 1-0-2, A. Runde 3-2-10, Searls 3-0-7, Hawes 0-2-2 Totals 8-4/5-23 Fouls-6
MINERAL POINT 68: Ross 3-0-9, Nodolf 0-0-0, Lindsey 4-1-11, Aschliman 2-0-6, Murphy 0-1-1, Chambers 2-2-6, Lawinger 4-0-10, Watters 6-0-14, Cody 1-0-3, Grunow 0-0-0, Cox 0-0-0, Wenger 2-1-6 Totals 24-5/8-66 Fouls-9
3 point goals:
IG-(3) A. Runde 2, Searls 1
MP-(13) Ross 3, Lindsey 2, Aschliman 2, Lawinger 2, Watters 2, Cody 1, Wenger 1