Photo by Samantha Davis. Westbrook-Walnut Grove’s Natalie Wall will lead the second half of the offense Friday afternoon against Canby in the Holiday Classic tournament at Southwest Minnesota State University Marshall. Wall scored seven points and the Chargers won 35-21.
MARSHALL — The Westbrook-Walnut Grove women’s basketball team limited the Canby offense with a strong defensive effort, 35-21 in the Holiday Classic Tournament at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall on Friday afternoon. won.
“I was really proud of our defensive effort.” WWG head coach Dan Klamper said. “We’re going to make sure we play solid man-to-man defense, make sure we have our hands in their faces, make sure we stay down, make sure everything is tough for them. I was really focused.”
Junior Leah Carter led WWG with 16 points. Senior Natalie Wall followed with seven points, all of which came in the first half, and Riley Parker added seven more points.
For Canby, Bryn Kockelman had a team-high eight points and Eva Danielson had seven points.
WWG pulled away midway through the first half, but never let up. Although they had some trouble pressing in the second half, WWG made up for the turnovers with their defense and held Camby to 11 points in the final 18 minutes.
Both the Lancers and Chargers have made exceptional progress recently. After dropping its first three games of the season, Camby has won four straight, with three of those games decided by 23 points or more.
WWG opened the season with only two losses, losing by four points to Lakeview on December 14th and losing 47-33 to McCray in the opening game.
Wahl got WWG’s offense back on track with a field goal and served as the main playmaker for the rest of the game. She ended the first half leading all scorers with seven points.
“She (Waal) is just a warrior and has been with me since eighth grade.” Clamper said. “I’m so proud of Natalie’s effort every game because we’ve been together for so long… She was hitting a few shots, inside the post because they sank to Leah and Riley. It was very difficult for us, so it was great to get some shots on the outside.”
In response to Wall’s opening bucket, Camby’s Kockelman made a jump shot.
The Chargers took an early 10-6 lead on a 3-pointer by Wahl, but Danielson made a short jumper along the baseline to get them back into possession.
Carter hit a shot from WWG at the top of the lane to end a multi-minute scoring drought, followed by a 3-pointer by Leah Vandewiele as the Chargers began to pull away.
In the final minute of the first half, Wahl made another field goal, sending WWG into the locker room with a 20-10 advantage.
The first three minutes of the second half were scoreless until Parker took a feed inside in the low post to restart the Chargers’ offense.
But Camby didn’t get a basket for just over six minutes until Kockelman drove the lane inside for a layup.
Camby started a full-court press and got back-to-back steals to confuse WWG and put the Chargers out of bounds. Despite the success of the press, the Lancers struggled to convert it into points on the other end.
“That’s one thing we’ve definitely got to continue to improve on throughout the season (in the face of the press).” Clamper said. “Our guards are pretty inexperienced. From last year, we graduated almost all of our guards, so they just need to slow down…My girls just stay calm and figure it out. I thought we continued to get better as we played against the press. So it wasn’t too much of a blow for us.”
WWG began to break up the press with more forceful passes up the court to find Carter open in the lane on mismatches.
Carter was the tallest player on the court, standing at 6 feet 1 inch.
“Leah was an absolute warrior in the paint. Again, when the ball drops in the low post, she gets a lot of hands and arms flying at her and she never complains. yeah.” Clamper said. “She just keeps fighting, keeps fighting. I think sometimes it can be frustrating when you don’t get a call or feel like you’re being fouled…I’m really proud of her effort again.”
WWG’s offense didn’t let up, and after a blocked shot by Carter, they returned to defense with a 19-point lead and started to smile with just over a minute left.
Camby got another steal off the press and hit Emily Nelson’s jumper in the final seconds of the game.
Carter returned the favor with a steal with 10 seconds left to give the Chargers the ball back and ultimately clinch the game.
“I thought we did a pretty good job of playing defense and making sure our shooters felt comfortable and didn’t get into a rhythm.” Clamper said. “I think our defense made them uncomfortable and we couldn’t find a rhythm on offense. That’s important for a good shooting team. I’m very proud of my daughter’s defensive effort.”
WWG (8-2) will return to the court in the new year against Southwest Minnesota Christian (6-2) on Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m.
Camby (4-4) will play again today, the second day of the tournament, taking on Edgerton (5-4) at SMSU’s R/A facility at 2 p.m.
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