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The Perham girls’ basketball team opened play at the Class AA State Tournament with a 94-84 loss to Providence Academy. “It was a 3 point game multiple times, including with less than 3 minutes to go,” reported Head Coach TJ Super of the Yellowjackets. “We just couldn't get over the hump. Every time we had it to one possession, they would hit a big shot. I felt like our defense against Maddyn Greenway was really good, we turned her into a jump shooter, she only took 3 shots at the rim in half-court offense and took 20 shots from over 10 feet away. The problem is she made a bunch of those shots and she made great passes, she was really good that night. We limited Providence to 13 transition points, including only 4 points off of our missed shots (9 off of steals).”
Greenway finished with 49 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals to lead Providence. Emma Millerbend added 20 points and 6 rebounds. Arianna Files-Peterson contributed 7 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
“On offense, we worked them into foul trouble by utilizing the best post scorer in the state (Willow Thiel),” noted Coach Super. “I defy anyone to show me someone that scores it more effectively in the post than her. Our girls bought into the game plan and executed it perfectly. We knew they would have to do some different things in the second half to stop Willow and we would get open shots. They went zone and also straight double-teamed WIllow before she got the ball, and our girls knocked shots down, going 7-11 from wide-open threes in the second half. But our advantage of getting Providence in foul trouble switched somewhat as we had 16 fouls called against us and Providence only committed 5 fouls.
Obviously, Thiel was unbelievable, scoring 41 points and grabbing 20 rebounds. She came into the game needing 24 points to become Perham's Overall All-Time Leading Scorer and she surpassed that with her first basket of the second half, passing 2019 grad Jenson Beachy.
Kennedy Pilgrim was almost equally as impressive, though, with 15 points, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds. She was 6 for 7 shooting and made all three of her threes in the last 8 minutes in clutch time. Ryleigh Mickelson hit late clutch shots, as Kaia Anderson got us going with some early 3's. Cora Grismer wasn't as effective scoring but was tasked with guarding Greenway all night.
“Overall, our girls were amazing,” added Super. “They dealt with the emotional ups and downs of not being seeded, then getting Providence, then being convinced that they could beat them, and lastly going out and proving it and going punch for punch with the best team in the state but coming up just short. I really could feel the emotional letdown and was concerned it would affect our next game, which I believe it absolutely did. It's a bummer that the seeding process put us up against the #1 team in the state when we were pretty universally ranked #4 in metrics that use strength of schedule. Either way, I'm very proud of our girls, they left everything they had on the court. They were able to walk off the court with knowing they put it all out there and played with the class and sportsmanship that our girls display every game.”