Northland Sports Online

Hancock Tops Minneota

Minneota center Kennedi Jurrens (24) tries to swat the ball away from Hancock's Rylee Hanson (11) in the second half of the MSHSL girls basketball Class A state championship game between Hancock and Minneota Saturday, March 19, 2022 at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.  ] ANTHONY SOUFFLE • anthony.souffle@startribune.com

NSO – NEWS RELEASE

Hancock forward Rylee Hanson said the Class 1A state championship game was tense.

The Owls, who trailed defending state champion Minneota by 11 points after seven minutes of play, rallied for a 54-43 victory over the Vikings on Saturday at Williams Arena.

Hancock, in the state tournament for the first time since 2011, fell behind 13-2 but managed to narrow their deficit to five points at halftime.

The Owls, who were just one-of-six from three-point range in the first half, opened the second half with a 12-2 run — on four consecutive three-pointers — to take a 26-21 lead with 13:36 remaining. The Vikings got within two points with three minutes remaining, but couldn’t get closer.

Hancock (30-1) held off the Vikings by making nine of 10 free throws in the final three minutes. For the game, the Owls were 17 of 20 from the line.

Freshman Kaitlyn Rohloff scored 16 points and Hanson scored 13 to lead the Owls (30-1), who earned their first state basketball title since 1997.

McKenna Yost scored 17 points to lead the Vikings (28-5), who were making their fifth consecutive state tournament appearance. The Vikings also won the state title in 2019 and reached the semifinals of the 2020 tournament before it was canceled because of COVID-19.

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