Dec. 22—BEMIDJI — Despite centering the defensive game plan around standout St. Michael-Albertville senior Cail Jahnke, she found ways to make the Bemidji High School girls basketball team pay.
Jahnke poured in a game-high 27 points to propel the Knights to a 75-52 win over the Lumberjacks on Monday afternoon at the BHS Gymnasium. STMA extended its winning streak to six games over the Jacks since they joined Section 8-4A in 2021.
From Bemidji head coach Darin Schultz's perspective, a 23-point defeat is misleading on the surface, and he has a good argument.
"I don't think the score is indicative of what we did on the court tonight," he said. "We did a lot of really good things. Defensively, we executed a game plan that we came up with. Cail Jahnke is a special player, but I thought we made her work hard for everything she got, which was one of the things we were trying to do.
"When you have a player like that, she takes so much focus and attention. Other kids get left open. Credit to them; they were hitting corner shots tonight. Any time we took some momentum, they took it right back."
The Knights got 12 more points out of Presley Adrian, and 11 from Kayli Bigalke. Maiya Slusarczyk added eight more.
"We have a huge scouting process we go through, and (Jahnke) takes 40% of their shots," Schultz said. "Statistically, all of the other players on their team were shooting OK. They shoot the 3, but they weren't shooting that high of a percentage. Tonight, they made them."
Anysia Pink had the hot hand early for the Lumberjacks. She hit a pair of 3s, a midrange jumper and a free throw in the six and a half minutes to put the Jacks ahead 11-8. Pink finished the first half with 13 of her team-high 24 points.
"Anysia has always had that ability in her, but we're seeing her with a really high level of confidence right now," Schultz said. "We talk a lot about how energy is contagious, whether it's positive or negative. Sometimes when you see the ball go in the hoop, even if it's not yours, everybody gets confidence. Her playing at the level she's at right now only brings positives to the rest of the team."
From there, the Knights went on a run, outscoring the Jacks 9-2 until Pink got a driving layup to fall midway through the first half to tie the game at 17-17. The two teams traded points until St. Michael-Albertville closed out the opening frame on an even more impressive stretch.
Jahnke hit a 3-pointer and a floater in the final minutes before halftime. Leading 26-21 with 10 seconds left, Adrian nailed a 3 to stretch STMA's lead to eight. And after BHS turned the ball over at half court on the ensuing possession, Adrian beat the buzzer with another 3 to send the Knights into the locker room up 32-21.
Despite unraveling in the final seconds of the first half, BHS rebounded to score eight points in the opening two minutes of the second frame. However, STMA matched with eight points of its own.
"It's something as a team we've been struggling with this season," Schultz said of starting halves strong offensively. "We talk about having high energy and intensity from the tip, and we've seen that the last two (games) against two really good opponents. If you take away those six points at the end of the first half, it's a six-point game going into halftime.
"That's kind of the message — we're doing what we need to do except for those little runs. We can clean that up. I'm proud of our girls; St. Michal is one of the best teams we're going to play this year. A few more free throws and a few less turnovers, it's a whole different story."
St. Michael-Albertville went on its biggest run in the second half. The 43-31 lead ballooned to a 56-34 advantage with 11 minutes remaining. The Jacks stopped the bleeding with a 6-0 run, thanks to a pair of hard-earned buckets from Karley LaZella in the post, but STMA reopened the wound and closed out the win.
"From an offense perspective, we did everything we could to make it hard on them," Schultz said. "We got to the line 30-plus times tonight. That tells me we're getting the ball where we're supposed to. Unfortunately, we just didn't shoot the ball at a very high percentage tonight. In a big section game against St. Michael (4-3), we have to make more shots."
LaZella was the only other Bemidji (7-3) player in double-digits. After
scoring 31 points to beat Little Falls
on Friday night, she scored 11 more on Monday.
"With her toughness inside, she's being really coachable right now," Schultz said. "In practice, we're working with her on ways she can be aggressive inside and go through people. She did that tonight and got to the free-throw line 12 times. When you can take those positives, even in a game like today's, we're going to continue to grow as a team. Our record will hopefully begin to show that, too."
St. Michael-Albertville 75, Bemidji 52
STMA 32 43 — 75
BHS 21 31 — 52
Bemidji — Pink 24, LaZella 11, L. Thompson 7, Sherwood 5, Bieber 2, Birt 2, Wilde 1.
St. Michael-Albertville — Jahnke 27, Adrian 12, K. Bigalke 11, Slusarczyk 8, Bryan 7, H. Bigalke 6. Egan 4.
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