KoMets continue to pile up victories

The Kasson-Mantorville girls basketball team is beginning to play some of its best basketball of the season as the KoMets picked up victories against Waseca and Cannon Falls last week. With the wins, the KoMets have improved their record to 12-4 on the season including 11 wins in their last 12 games.
During that stretch, K-M has held their own in the HVL as they own a 7-0 record in the conference, but has also been able to slug it out with tough non-conference opponents as well. The latter was on display on January 17 when the KoMets hosted Waseca.
The Jays entered the game ranked 12th in Class AAA while K-M was sitting as the fourth-ranked team. The first half had the makings of a classic, grind-it-out game. As the scoring opportunities were kept to a minimum, both teams slugged it out to an 18-15 Waseca advantage at halftime. The Jays were particularly effective in limiting KoMets senior Kristin Scott, who was held to just one point in the half as she was in search of her 2,000th career point.
“Waseca is known for their tough defense,” K-M head coach Ryan Haraldson said of the first half. “We knew we had to take care of the basketball, work for rebounds and finish at the free throw line as it was going to be a tough game.”
While the KoMets didn’t have a high-scoring first half, they were able to stay patient and return to their strong post game in order to make a run. Thanks to some better timing and spacing, Scott eventually got going and would score 16 points in the second half.
Eventually, this game would come down to the wire and Lexie Worden was fouled with 1.3 seconds left and sank a big free-throw that tied the game at 43 to send it to overtime. From there, the KoMets turned back to Scott, who scored six in the extra frame to finish with 23 points on the game and three shy of 2,000.
Late in the game, the KoMets were nursing a 49-48 lead when they came up with a key defensive stop. After Bailey Berge hit a free-throw to expand the lead to 50-48, the Jays couldn’t get a shot up before time expired to give the KoMets the victory.
K-M would use that momentum when they headed to Cannon Falls on January 20. There wasn’t much suspense regarding Scott’s 2,000th career point as she scored the