The Owatonna Girls Basketball Team started off rocky at 4-6 and 2-4 in their league with their recent victory versus the Albert Lea Tigers. Rochester Mayo is currently leading the league at 6-0. The Huskies are looking to turn things around in the near future. 

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Sarah kingland at the free throw line

The young Huskies team have been riddled with injuries over the season. Head coach Lindsey Hugstad-Vaa said, “We lost one of our starters in the first game and we are evaluating another starter’s injury to see how bad it is. So we will have to find that out.” The Huskies bench will have to step up in a tremendous way in order to fill the roles of junior starter Ari Shornock who was a game one starter for the Huskies as she is only able to play roughly half the game. Luckily, junior Holly Buytaert is able to play again full time after being injured in the beginning of the season. 

COVID-19 restraints have been set into place for the basketball season with players having to wear masks not only on the bench, but also in the game playing. With the mask rule being in effect for the Huskies it has made some complications with how much the starters can play before they need a break on the bench from not being able to take in enough oxygen through the mask. Senior captain Maggie Newhouse says, Playing in masks makes our team have to rotate lineups faster. It also makes it harder to communicate through the masks.” The Huskies have started to turn things around in big ways as they have won their last two games. Senior captain Maggie Newhouse also said, “We are starting to shoot very well from inside the arc and from the free throw line. We have had excellent defensive plays as well as grabbing many offensive rebounds.” 

The Huskies will take on the 3-0 Northfield Raiders on Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Northfield High School where they hope to keep the rhythm going.