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Northern Lights Places Third

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Northern Lights 11th Grade Finishes 3rd at AAU Nationals

The Northern Lights 11th grade team traveled to Orlando, Florida July 7-14 to compete in the AAU D II National Championships at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. The girls returned with the 3rd place trophy, and the best finish in the seven trips Northern Lights has taken to national events over the past thirteen years.
In game one of pool play action in Pool A on Wednesday, July 9th Northern Lights opened up with the Florida Lady Comets. Both teams appeared to be shaking off the rust for most of this game, and were trying to adjust to the intense style of play and the thirty second shot clock.
The Lights had a lead late, but the Comets scored on a hard drive to the basket and were fouled in the process. With the game tied at 41-41 and four seconds left the Comets had a chance to take the lead but missed the freethrow and the game went to overtime.
In overtime it was all Northern Lights as they opened with a 7-0 run thanks to lay-ups by Lexie DeWall (Proctor, MN) and Ava Gonsorowski (Esko, MN) and Northern Lights won their opener 48-43.
Game two of pool play was a match up with the Florida Gulf Coast G Nation Orange on Thursday, July 10th. Northern Lights came out much more relaxed and again clamped down with their tough man to man defense and won the game 48-38. This victory locked up the top seed in Pool A and secured the girls a Bye in the first round of bracket play.
Kassidy Steen (Cloquet, MN) scored on a lay-up to finish the first half with Northern Lights on top by nine. Katie Stark (Hayward, WI) then knocked down a three off of a set play to start the second half to push the lead to twelve. Chelsea Swatek (Cromwell, MN) knocked down two three point shots which also helped give Northern Lights a cushion. G Nation was able to pull to within four at 34-30, but the Lights held their composure and finished the game on a 14-8 run. Kianna Hren (Hermantown, MN) knocked down two pressure freethrows late in the game to help seal the win.
Game three of pool play was played on the main court in the HP Field House at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex versus the Livingston Ladies of Louisiana later on Thursday. Once again, Northern Lights was able to settle in and play great defense and cruised to the 52-39 win, and gave the Lights an unblemished 3-0 record in pool play.
Lexie DeWall knocked down a pair of three point shots to push Northern Lights out to a comfortable lead in the first half. Stark was able to find mismatches and was able to score at will in the post.
Game one of bracket play on Friday, July 11th was a match-up with the Tuscaloosa Sparks. They were an athletic group with a couple of very good players who could score from anywhere. Their top player hit a three to start the game, but Stark, Swatek, and DeWall did an outstanding job of shutting her down for the remainder of the game.
The Lights were jump started by Andrea Hakamaki (Cromwell, MN) a 5’6” guard who led the team in rebounding during the game.

Hakamaki also routinely kept numerous other missed shots alive by tipping them to her teammates to preserve possessions. She also scored on a tough baseline drive to ignite the Northern Lights offense. Dana Tekavec (Hinckley, MN) also played her best game of the tournament at that point as she controlled the middle with her defense and was converting lay-ups on the offensive end. Northern Lights went on to knock off the Sparks 44-36 and advanced to the Elite 8. Teams from Pool A were a combined 6-1 on day one of bracket play, and two other teams from their pool (Florida Lady Comets and the Livingston Ladies) also advanced to the Elite 8 which showed that their earlier pool play victories were against quality opponents.


On Saturday, July 12th, Northern Lights ran into one of the hottest teams in the tournament in Florida’s Finest Red. They had won two games on Friday scoring 75 and 74 points in those contests. Two of their kids appeared to be impossible to guard in the previous games.
Swatek and Jordyn Thomas (Hermantown, MN), two sophomores playing up on the 11th grade team were given the responsibility of guarding those two players to start the game and they set the tone in what would be the best all-around game Northern Lights played at the National Championships as they cruised to the 53-29 victory.
Stark, DeWall, and Gonsorowski also took turns frustrating those two players while their Northern Lights teammates also did a great job helping on defense. The Lights led 32-15 at half time, and pushed the lead to 40-15 in the second half as Aleia Lupa (Northwestern, WI) hit a three as the shot clock expired to dagger Florida’s Finest and put the game away. It took Florida’s Finest six minutes before they finally got on the board in the second half, and they only scored three points in the first ten minutes of the second half.
The Lights were also a well oiled machine on offense as they made great decisions and were patient on the offensive end. Their shot selection was excellent in what was the girls best shooting game of the tournament. They also took advantage of their own missed shots and were very tough on the offensive boards as DeWall, Steen, Stark, Thomas, Swatek and Tekavec all grabbed numerous offensive rebounds which led to easy baskets. With the victory, Northern Lights advanced to the Final Four.
The Lights had a few hours to rest before taking on the Jacksonville Lady Rams with a trip to the D II National Championship game on the line. Northern Lights had their work cut out for them as the Lady Rams were many peoples pick to win the National Championship. Their combination of size, speed and athleticism had given teams problems all week and they were averaging an impressive 65.6 points per game throughout the tournament.
The Lady Rams 6’2 sophomore post player, who may have been the best all-around player at the tournament, and her teammate who was 6’4 and was the largest player Northern Lights had ever played against, made defending this team a difficult task. Not only were they big, but they had shooters who could knock down open shots if you tried to double team the post players.
The Northern Lights were shell shocked by the energy the Lady Rams came out with early in the game. Their full court pressure defense, and the intensity with which they defended took the Lights off guard and in the blink of an eye, Northern Lights trailed 19-4 eight minutes into the game.
The Lights did find their composure thanks in large part to the steady point guard play of Hren and Gonsorowski and Northern Lights was able to compete with the Rams over the remainder of the first half and trailed only 24-13 at the half. The poor start had put Northern Lights in a hole, but they kept the Rams within reach, and set the stage for one of the best finishes of the entire tournament.
The teams traded baskets early in the half, and it seemed like every time Northern Lights was about to make a run, the Rams would answer with a big shot of their own. Northern Lights gained some confidence when Gonsorowski drove to the basket and challenged the 6’4 post for the Rams and was able to score with her left hand over the mountain of a girl while drawing a foul in the process. Steen scored on an inbounds play to keep the momentum shifting towards Northern Lights.
The girls fought, scratched and clawed their way back into the game and were down only four points with two minutes remaining in the game. The Lady Rams did not shoot freethrows well and Northern Lights sent them to the line to extend the game and give themselves extra possessions. The Lights were in position to take control of the game but let a couple of possessions slip away late in the game, but they were still within reach.
Swatek was a thorn in the side of the Rams all day and she was lighting it up from the three point line in the second half. Trailing 51-48 with twelve seconds remaining, Swatek came off of a screen and with no fear knocked down a clutch three with a defender in her face to tie the game at 51-51. It was her third three point shot of the half.
Northern Lights put on some full court pressure after the made basket, but a questionable touch foul sent the Rams to the freethrow line with ten seconds remaining. The Rams knocked down the first freethrow, but missed the second. An unfortunate long rebound was controlled by the Rams and Northern Lights had to foul again. The Rams again made one of two and Northern Lights trailed 53-51 with 3.9 seconds remaining.
Northern Lights set up a play out of their timeout, but the Rams defended it well and the desperation heave at the buzzer came up short. The Lady Rams advanced to the D II National Championship game, while Northern Lights was put in the position of wondering what might have been, and having to settle for playing for 3rd place on Monday, July 13th.
Northern Lights was motivated to play well on Monday and they were taking on a familiar foe. The Lady Comets from Pool A who the Lights defeated in game one of pool play was all that stood in the way of the best finish for any Northern Lights teams at the AAU National Championships.
As in their first match-up, both teams came out tight and shots were not falling for either team. The game was scoreless five minutes in until Stark broke the ice by making one of two freethrows. The offense was not coming easy for Northern Lights and eventually the Comets started hitting shots from the inside and out as they raced out to a 23-14 halftime lead.
The lone bright spot on offense in the first half was the inside work of Stark and Tekavec. They played excellent two man games in the paint and helped keep the game within reach at the half.
Northern Lights knew they had to play better in the second half to have any chance, and they again relied heavily on their defense to start the half and to ignite their comeback. The two teams played to a virtual stalemate the first six minutes of the half with Northern Lights outscoring the Comets 4-2 and cutting the lead to 25-18.
A series of stops on defense and a tough baseline jump shot by Lupa was the shot in the arm the Lights needed. Her shot led to a 14-1 run for Northern Lights that pushed them in front 32-26.
During the run, Steen got hot inside and also made two freethrows. Gonsorwoski finished another tough lay-up and knocked down the freethrow as she was fouled in the process. Swatek was again hot from the outside as she hit a big three and a baseline jumper during the run.
The Comets would not go away. They answered with a three and converted a three point play on a basket and a foul to get close the gap to 38-35 with about a minute to play.
It was Gonsorowski who knocked down a mid-range jump shot to push the lead to 40-35. Lupa hit two clutch freethrows to ice the 42-36 victory and Northern Lights claimed the 3rd place trophy and medals.
The tournament routinely had teams winning while giving up fifty and sixty points during games, but Northern Lights proved that AAU basketball is not all about offense as they relied heavily on a solid half court man to man defense that gave teams fits. The Lights were patient on offense and were the only team playing man to man defense for full games during the tournament against teams who were bigger and at times more athletic. Northern Lights allowed a paltry 39.1 points per game for the tournament which is impressive considering the games were played with a thirty second shot clock.
The Lights were hoping to improve on their 5th place finish in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2014 where they went 6-2. The girls were ranked third in the D II AAU Pre-Season National Rankings that were released in March. After a 9th place finish in the Minnesota D I State Championships this spring they went 6-1 at the D II National Championships this year. They lost to the Lady Rams who went on to win the Championship Game over the Monroe Bulldogs 66-43. Northern Lights was the only team to challenge the Rams throughout the week.


Team members include:
Andrea Hakamaki and Chelsea Swatek (Cromwell, MN), Kianna Hren and Jordyn Thomas (Hermantown, MN), Kassidy Steen (Cloquet, MN), Dana Tekavec (Hinckley, MN), Aleia Lupa (Northwestern, WI), Katie Stark (Hayward, WI), Ava Gonsorowski (Esko, MN) and Lexie DeWall (Proctor, MN).
Other team members who did not travel to nationals are; Anna Fossen (Cloquet, MN), Lily Gruber-Schulz (Grand Marais, MN), Maggie Leider (Duluth, MN), and Megan Aho (Floodwood, MN).
The team was coached by Adam Johnson and he was assisted by Kylee Smith.

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