The Northland Pines girls basketball team used in-game adjustments and overcame adversity in the first half against Butternut Monday night. The Eagles came away with a 55-33 victory at Northland Pines High School.
It was an unusual start time for the Eagles, as the varsity game tipped off at 4:30 p.m. “We were grateful to add this game to our schedule after Bowler had to cancel earlier in the week,” said head coach Jaclyn Halsey about the extra game.
Coach Smith said going straight from school to the game was a change and likely contributed to the slow start the Eagles had.
Pines trailed by 10 points early on, but made a shift from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone to limit the post threat of Butternut.
The Eagles fought back and went into the halftime break up by one, 21-20. “We opened in man-to-man defense, but Butternut’s No. 12 created problems in the first eight minutes. She was aggressive in the post and did a strong job initiating their offense. Once we shifted into a 2–3 zone to address the post presence, we gradually found our rhythm,” explained Halsey. “After trailing by nearly 10 points early on, I was proud of how we battled back to head into halftime.”
It was a different story offensively for the Eagles in the second half. Pines got in a flow and built a 37-27 lead early. The team outscored Butternut 34-13 in the second half to claim victory.
“Coming out of the break, the girls were focused and determined to turn the game around. We slowly built a lead, found a comfortable flow, and got back to playing the brand of basketball we know,” stated Halsey.
Natalie Kohn finished with a strong 20 points, 10 of which came from the charity stripe. Ryyn and Ryley Darr combined for 25 points, where Ryyn had 14 points, and Ryley finished with 11.
The Eagles (4-2, 1-1) will now look ahead to a Great Northern Conference game at Tomahawk this Friday, Dec. 12, at 6 p.m.
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