Lady Wrens Advance To Second Round of Section 7A Playoffs

Feb 29, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Wrenshall Wrens advanced to the second round of the Section 7A girls basketball playoffs on Tuesday night with a 60-43 victory over the Silver Bay Mariners at Silver Bay High School as the sectional playoffs began Tuesday night.

Silver Bay and Wrenshall were both playing in this play in game to advance to the second round of the sectional playoffs, saw each team’s top player control the game offensively. But in the end it was the Wrens who picked up the playoff win.

For the second time in less than three weeks, the Wrenshall Wrens defeated the Mariners as Wrenshall had defeated Silver Bay on February 10th by a score of 54-34 with the Polar League match-up played in Wrenshall. In spite of the fairly convincing win, the QRF ranking system had the Wrens seeded #9 and needing to travel to #8 Silver Bay.

The Wrens were led by senior center Maria Burcar, who finished with a game high 26 points on the night. Teammate Delaney Kittle finished with 14, Natalie Peaney scored seven and she hit the only 3-pointer in the game for Wrenshall.

The rest of the Wrens scoring on Tuesday night included sophomore forward Brittney O’Brien and Cassie Wimmer, who both added 6 points for Wrenshall; and it was the eighth grader, Kaitlyn Kelley who ended with 4 points for the Wrens.

Silver Bay was led by junior center Alicia Nopola who finished with 24 points for the Mariners including connecting on four 3-pointers. Tara Dow added 12, Jackie Larson and Brandi Nopola each chipped in with 2 points in the Silver Bay loss.

The Wrens improve to 4-19 on the season as they advance to the Section 7A second round, where they will face the Barnum Bombers at 7:45 on Thursday night at Proctor High School. The location was changed from the original site of Hermantown.

With cancelations due to weather on Wednesday, the Section 7A section games scheduled at Hermantown High School were moved to Proctor High School. The remaining sites in Section 7A second round action will remain the same.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northalndsportsonline.com