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Guler Buzzer-Beater Lifts Viking Girls to State

By Dean Nielsen, 03/06/20, 11:00PM CST

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Senior point guard Maddie Guler's only basket of the game, as the final buzzer sounded, lifted the Pelican Rapids girls basketball team to a 43-41 victory over Fergus Falls Friday night at Concordia College, and with it a berth in next weeks state AA Tournament in the Twin Cities.

Guler received the ball near mid-court and dribbled down the right side before put up her game-winner from about fifteen feet that banked through cleanly.

Fergus Falls had their only leads in the game of 2-0, 3-1 and 13-11 in the first half, as they struggled to find their shooting eye against the tight Vikings defense. Fergus Falls had chance to expand their early leads as they could not take advantage of several Pelican turnovers in the early going. The Vikings controlled the boards throughout the contest limiting the Otters to one shot in the majority of their possessions and holding a 27-16 advantage in rebounds.

Pelican Rapids held a slim 21-17 lead at the half with Greta Tollefson scoring 8 and Anna Stephenson 7. The Vikings took only 13 shots, making 7. Fergus Falls shot just 30% in the half (6-20) and were led by Ellie Colbeck with 9.

Fergus Falls had battled back from being down by eight points in the second half to tie the game at 41-41 on an Ellie Colbeck driving lay-up with 2:40 to go. The Otter's had a chance to gain the lead but missed inside, but saw the Vikings give Fergus Falls another chance after Tollefson was called with a charge with :31 to go. Fergus Falls called a time-out with 14 seconds left to set up a play but threw an errant pass inside, returning the ball to Pelican Rapids with 5.6 seconds remaining and leading to Gular's heroics.

Colbeck was the lone Otter in double figures finishing with a game-high 22 points. Tori Ratz and Carlie Meis added 6 points each with both hitting a pair of treys. Gretchen Davis had a team high 9 rebounds and Sabrina Fronning led with 5 assists. Fergus Falls finished the game shooting 37% (16-43) from the field and made just 4-of-9 from the free-throw stripe. Tollefson had 18 points and Stephenson 16 for the Vikings who were 14-of-29 (49%) and 12-of-17 at the line.

Fergus Falls finishes it season 25-5. Pelican Rapids remains unbeaten on the season 29-0, and will find their opening round opponent at State following seeding on Sunday. All Class AA games will be played at either 6:00pm or 8:00pm Wednesday at Williams Arena or Maturi Pavilion, both on the University of Minnesota campus.