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Playing without starting guard Cora Grismer because of illness, the Perham girls’ basketball team had to figure out how to play without one of their leaders. The answers on how they would play were quickly answered on the defensive end as the Yellowjackets rose to the challenge and held Hawley under 40 points in a 60-38 Heart O’ Lakes Conference victory.
“First time starter Kaia Starzl got the nod and also got the assignment of pickup up Izzy Steer on defense,” reported Perham Head Coach TJ Super. “She locked down their leading scorer, holding her to 0 points against her stingy defense. In fact, only 2 of Steer’s overall 10 points were in the half-court, the rest came from fast break points on Perham turnovers. We held the Nuggets to 12 first half points while we were piling up 32 against the Hawley zone. Good passing wowed the full crowd, as Kennedy Pilgrim (5 assists), Ryleigh Mickelson (5 assists) and Greta Raser, all had multiple highlight passes in the first half. Willow Thiel and Cate Diggins were the primary beneficiaries.”
Diggins had all 9 of her points in the first half and Thiel ended the night with 36 points, to go along with a dozen rebounds.
The second half saw more of the same result on defense for the Jackets, although the offense slowed down some.
Perham (17-2, 7-1 HOL) ran their winning streak to 12 straight games. They have an opportunity to avenge their only conference loss when they travel to Barnesville on Thursday night.
Hawley (8-9, 2-7 HOL) has lost 5 of their last 6 games. They have back-to-back non-conference games this week as the host Crookston on Monday and travel to Park Rapids on Thursday.