Time to Dance

By ML Headrick
Moody County Enterprise

HURON – Warner scored first and held an 8-3 lead over the first two minutes, but the Hawks got into their groove scoring 17 points and held the Monarchs to a lone free throw over the final six minutes in the quarter taking a 20-9 first quarter lead and will now head to the Class B State Tournament this Thursday through Saturday.
The #5 seeded Hawks are matched in the opening round with #4 seeded Ethan who come into the tourney with a 21-2 mark. The Hawks are 22-1 on the season. All games are played at First Bank & Trust Arena on the campus of SDSU in Brookings.
In the SoDak 16’s second quarter, the Monarchs tried to close the gap keeping the Hawks from breakout baskets. The Hawks could only connect on five quarter points. Giving them an upper hand due to several Colman-Egan turnovers, the Monarchs were unsuccessful in taking advantage of those miscues, and collected only nine points. At halftime, the Hawks remained in the lead, 25-18.
When play resumed after the break, scoring went back and forth for the first five minutes. Late in the quarter, the Monarchs began to shut the Hawks out not allowing a Hawk point in the final three minutes. Warner took command draining three 2-pointers and a free throw in two minutes and earned the lead with 10 clicks left in the period. Warner hit 18 quarter points to the Hawks’ nine. The third quarter closed with the Hawks trailing 36-34, knowing they eight more minutes to achieve their state tournament berth goal.
In the final quarter, the Hawks got an early basket and then relied on clutch free throw shooting (13 of them) the rest of the way to claim the victory. Warner managed only eight quarter points including a 3-pointer as the final buzzer sounded.
It wasn’t clear sailing for Coach Josh Flatten’s girls as they had trouble getting the ball in the hoop. Over the season, his Hawks consistently scored many points from beyond the arc, but Thursday night the lid was closed. Colman-Egan shot a season low, .09 percent making only 2 of 22 attempts. They finished the game at 26 percent overall and were 16 of 46 in 2-point shots.
The Monarchs closed the season at 16-7 and shot 34 percent from the field.
Pacing her Hawks and all scorers in what she determined was not to be her final game in a Hawk uniform, was senior Brynlee Landis with 20 points. She got into early foul trouble and sat out part way through the third quarter with four fouls.
She wasn’t the only one in foul trouble as Quinn Meyer and Maci Voelker, both closed the game with four.
Following Landis in scoring was Meyer with 12 points and Jolie Flatten netted nine.
Off the boards, Voelker and Landis both had seven rebounds, Mya Reiff had six and Meyer brought down five.
The last time a Colman-Egan girls basketball team played in the Class B State Tournament was in 2009 when some of these girls weren’t even born yet. They took sixth that year.
No matter what, the team will get to hang a new banner in the C-E gym this spring.