The Fergus Falls girls basketball team defeated the Hawley Nuggets 50-26 in Section 8AA Semi-Final play on their home court Tuesday night to advance to the Championship Game Thursday night at the "Hive" in Perham. Their opponent will be defending champion Pelican Rapids as the Vikings survived an overtime battle with Barnesville, downing the Trojans in the other Semi-Final 46-39. It will be a re-match of last years title game when the Vikings edged the Otters 43-41 on Maddie Guler's shot at the buzzer.

The Otters jumped out to a 8-0 lead before Hawley got on the scoreboard on a free-throw from reserve Addi Dauner. A 9-0 run saw the Otters increase their lead to 16 after Ellie Colbeck nailed a 3-pointer. The Nuggets were ice-cold from the field getting their first and only field goal of the half from Kaylie Crabtree who scored from behind the arc with 4:30 left. Tori Ratz had a trey and a pair of conventional 3-point plays and Colbeck a basket as the Otters ended the half on another run to lead 30-6 at the half.   

Ratz had 13 points and Colbeck 11 in the opening half for the Otters who made half of their 24 shots from the floor. Hawley found a lid on the basket making only one basket in 18 attempts.

The lead grew to as much as 29 (40-11) after Anna Anderson drained a pair of charity tosses with 12:04 to go. The Otters got a scare as Ellie Colbeck went to the floor with a possible injury with just over seven minutes to go and went to the locker room. The injury was not serious as she later returned to the bench where she finished the game.

Colbeck and Ratz finished the contest with 15 points each, leading the Otters. Colbeck also snared 8 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.  Anderson added 8 points and 5 rebounds, and Hannah Polejewski 7. Paige Pearson finished with 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Fergus Falls finished the game shooting 18-of-46 for 39%. Crabtree led Hawley with 10, followed by 6 from Anna Steer. The Nuggets made just 7 of 41 attempts for 17 %.

"Wow! I loved our focused energy to start the game tonight," said Fergus Falls Head Coach Brad Strand.  "We really defended well the first half.  I am proud of the effort of our team as all girls made big contributions throughout the game.  Happy for the team to have a chance to play in our fourth consecutive section championship game. We will play the defending champion and love the challenge presented to our team!"

Winning for the 15th consecutive time, Fergus Falls ups their record to 18-3. Hawley's ends their season 13-8.

Fergus Falls  30  20--50                                                                 Hawley          6   20--26

Fergus Falls--Anderson, 2 2-2 8; Colbeck, 6 1-2 15; Nuss, 1 1-2 3; Pearson, 1 0-0 2; Polejewski, 3 1-2 7; Ratz, 5 4-4 15. Totals: 18 (5) 9-12 50.

Hawley--Brookshire, 1 1-4 3; Kaylie Crabtree, 4 1-1 10; Addi Dauner, 0 1-2 1; Lily Peterson, 0 2-2 2; Anna Steer, 2 1-2 6; Izzy Steer, 0 4-4 4.  Totals: 7 (2) 10-15 26.