Wrenshall Girls Get 67-54 Playoff Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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Mar 1

Wes Vork-NSO

The Wrenshall girls basketball team has been in the process of rebuilding since their state tournament run in 2008. That process took another step forward when the Lady Wrens won their first playoff game since that 2008 season by beating Silver Bay 67-54 on Tuesday night in Wrenshall.

In her second season, Wrenshall Head Coach Michelle Blanchard has led the Wrens in several positive steps, including hosting a playoff game and snapping a 45 game losing streak that included going 0-25 during the 2009-2010 campaign.

“It is good to actually win a playoff game,” Coach Blanchard told Northland Sports Online. Adding, “We have another tough game coming up (against Cook County), but you know, one game at a time.”

With only one senior on the squad, the future appears bright for the Wrens. “The bulk of our team are Juniors. Next year should bring more improvement yet, because they’re really starting to play well together. We’ve seen a lot of improvement, especially over last year.” Coach Blanchard explained.

Tuesday, the Wrens started out strong, getting the ball inside to Maria Burcar and building a 19-10 lead. Silver Bay then went on an 11-2 run of their own and tied the game at 21-21 at the 4:46 mark of the first half. The Mariners then took the lead for the first time at the 3:59 mark, hitting a basket to go up 23-22. The two teams went back and forth for the remainder of the half with Silver Bay coming out on top, taking a 30-26 lead into the locker room.

The Mariners started the second half, picking up where they left off before the break and extending the lead to 36-30. During that stretch Silver Bay worked hard to deny the inbound pass to Burcar. With the post temporarily shut down, Natalie Peaney and Sydney Ellerbe took over with outside shooting and drives to the lane.

“We knew Maria would be double or even triple teamed, so we told the other kids when the opportunity was there to drive the lane.” Coach Blanchard explained.

Wrenshall worked their way back and tied things up when Maria Burcar scored off of a backcourt turnover, tying things up at 36 all. Back and forth basketball from that point on would be an understatement, with the lead changing hands 7 times and the game tied 6 times over the next six minutes.

With the game tied at 49-49, Burcar took over and scored to give the Wrens a 51-49 lead with 4:28 left to play. This time, instead of trading leads the Wrens clamped down on defense and Burcar took over on the offensive end to help the Wrens close out the game on a 16-5 run to capture the 67-54 playoff win.

“It feels good to come back again, especially compared to last year, it’s great!” Junior guard Natalie Peaney explained.

Burcar led the Wrens in scoring with 38 points, just two points shy of her personal best and school record of 40 points. Following Burcar was Natalie Peaney with 11, Sydney Ellerbe with 10, Brittney O’Brien added 5, Beth Stewart finished with 2 and Shanna Laveau closed out the scoring with 1 point. Silver Bay was led by Alica Napola with 24 points.

With the win Wrenshall advances to the quarterfinal round of the Section 7A playoffs and will face #1 seed Cook County at 7:45pm on Thursday at Hermantown High School.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com