The Huskies are playing their best basketball at just the right time. The girls struggled through the first part of the year dealing with injury, illness and heartbreaking losses in close games. With these losses in the rearview, the Huskies have turned it around. The Huskies racked up six wins in a row, including a win against Austin, the fifth ranked team in class 3A. 

As the section tournament comes around, the Huskies are starting to hit their stride as a team. The girls head coach Lindsay Hugstad-Vaa said, “We would really like to keep improving our shooting percentage and keep turnovers down. Rebounding is always a focus and being smart and disciplined on defense.” 

As competition starts to get tough, the Huskies are staying calm and poised for the tough competition. Senior captain Holly Buyteart said, “We don’t have a ton of pressure on going far in the section because it is pretty competitive but we have the opportunity to do really well if we continue playing together.”

The depth and full-team effort has been key for the Huskies to win some close games. The Huskies’ grit and determination to win games has started with the leadership of their captains: Lexi Mendenhall, Holly Buyteart and Ari Shornock. They will always give it their all and they have a chance to win in every game. 

As the Huskies are underdogs going into the section tournament, they are poised to keep up their hot streak and pull off an upset. Senior captain Lexi Mendenhall said, “There isn’t too much of an expectation, although we have been playing our best basketball right now, there are teams in the metro who have been playing really tough competition all season long. I am confident that we could make it more than one round if we keep playing with heart.”  Senior center Lexi Mendenhall needed four more points to reach a big  milestone in her high school basketball career by scoring over 1000 points, against the Rochester John Marshall Rocket, who defended well against Mendenhall on February 19. 

In the section class of 1AAAA, the Huskies will be up against some tough competition as Lakeville North and Lakeville South have proven to be some of toughest competition. The starting date of the section tournament is March 2, starting with the quarterfinal games, semifinals take place on March 5, and the section final is on March 11.