Jan. 22—WORTHINGTON — In a matchup of top three teams, the No. 3 Minnesota West women narrowly got the better of top-ranked Rochester in a 64-60 struggle Wednesday at the Center for Health and Wellness gym.
It is a rivalry out of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference (MCAC) South division that’s included six matchups over the last two seasons, including in the last two NJCAA Division III national championship games.
But Wednesday’s latest chapter proved to be a shift from those other ones. The Lady Jays this year are a very different team than they were in the past with most of it incoming freshmen getting their first taste of playing Rochester.
“Everybody else that’s around here, it’s Rochester, it’s Rochester, it’s Rochester,” said Lady Jays head coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka. “So I think they hear that, they just know because everybody does that so I think maybe we were in that first quarter a little intimidated by them, they’re number one, you know, all of those things.”
“But sometimes it’s good to have freshmen, because on the one side, they hear it, but they don’t know any better, you know, so they’re like, ‘It’s just Rochester who cares, we’ve never dealt with them.’ I think they got a taste of the rivalry a little bit, but I thought they handled it really well.”
The Lady Jays won a physical, defensive game and held a Rochester team that normally averages nearly 82 points a game to just 60. They also snapped the Yellowjackets’ nine-game win streak.
Minnesota West did not play its best, turning the ball over 25 times, including 16 in a low-scoring first half that had just 43 combined points. The game was tied at just nine apiece after the first quarter as nearly the first three minutes of the game went scoreless.
It was still a pretty low-scoring second quarter as the teams went back and forth until the Yellowjackets took a 22-21 lead into halftime.
“They just took us out of anything we wanted to do,” Hayenga-Hostikka said of Rochester’s defense in the first half. “I felt like, if you watch every offensive position we had, it was just we weren’t comfortable, we were panicking. I mean, how many times did we have to count the clock down and still not get a good shot, so credit to their defense.”
Then the offensive began to pick up in the second half, especially in a third quarter that saw both teams score 20-plus points before being level at 44-all heading into the fourth quarter. A 3-point shot by Rhea Tucker and then a Maddie Kamm putback off a Sadie Krahling miss gave the Jays a five-point lead. Then a Rochester trey later tied the game at 53 with five minutes left and back and forth the teams went.
With the game tied at 55 with under three to play, two Kamm free throws and then a Tucker steal and fast-break layup put the Lady Jays in front 59-55 with 54.7 seconds left. Kamm then hit one of two free throws for a five-point lead.
Rochester then made two free throws after a Lady Jays foul to make it a one-possession game again with 33.3 seconds left.
On the next possession, Katrina Schutz, herself a freshman getting her first rivalry experience against Rochester, was sent to the foul line with 14.1 to go.
“I wanted to be at the line,” Schutz said. “I was like, ‘I want it to be me, if it’s gonna come down to the three throws, I want it to be on my shoulders. So I was nervous, but I knew I was gonna knock them down.”
Sure enough, Schutz knocked down both free throws to push the Minnesota West lead back up to five. But the Yellowjackets immediately responded with a 3-pointer with 11.7 to go and Schutz was again fouled with the Jays up 62-60.
She stepped up to the line and again nailed her two free-throw attempts with 9.9 left to ice the game.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Lady Jays celebrated and Schutz’s first Rochester game would end with a win, thanks in large part to her game-high 23 points.
“I think we hit some big shots, which obviously just intensifies the game and gets the energy going,” Schutz said. “We dug down on defense. Honestly, I think that everything was just going our way because we were playing super hard.”
Schutz was efficient, going 7-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-6 from behind the arc, and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. She also notched a double-double with 11 rebounds and had three assists and two blocks as well.
Tucker also had a double-double, finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds. She also led the team in assists with six. Kamm and Krahling each added 12 points as the Lady Jays shot 50% in the second half and 42% for the game. They also hit eight 3-pointers and were 18-of-20 from the foul line.
Four players from Rochester scored in double figures with Kara Goetzinger scoring 14 points, Allana Bates 13, Macaya Copeland 11 and Cassidy Shute 10. The Yellowjackets made seven treys and finished with 22 offensive rebounds. They shut just 29% from the field.
The win for the Jays improves their record to 12-7 overall and an unbeaten 4-0 in MCAC South play. They already have two top-five wins under their belt, beating fourth-ranked Anoka-Ramsey by 21 on the road nearly a couple weeks ago.
“This is huge, this win is incredible,” Schutz said. “The number one team in the nation, and then you come out and beat them, like this is huge for us. We needed it. I think this is gonna be good for us going the rest of the year for sure.”
“I mean, we just have to keep building on it And I feel like we’ve been here a couple times where we’d be like, ‘Yes, we finally, like, we’re getting it, and then we’ve had a letdown,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “…It’s just focus and just, you know, playing with that energy and those things so maybe, I think it’s more of a mental game right now than anything else honestly.”
