Girls Basketball: Rangers return to state after 19-year absence

Crosby-Ironton's Tori Oehrlein, right dribbles off a screen from teammate Hannah Compton against Pequot Lakes in the Section 7-2A Final on Friday, March 10, 2023, at Brainerd High School.

By Jeremy Millsop

March 15, 2023 at 5:57 AM

CROSBY — Crosby-Ironton Rangers head coach Pete Vukelich is old enough to remember Kim Rosecrans, Mari Kivisto, Whitney Smetana, Angel Adams and the Gaviglio twins.

His players, however, are not. None of them were even born the last time the Rangers girls’ advanced to the state tournament in 2004. Nineteen years later, the Rangers will return to the state’s final girls’ basketball tournament 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, when the unseeded and Class 2A’s 10th-ranked Rangers face No. 2 seeded and No. 3 ranked Goodhue Wildcats in the Class 2A Quarterfinals at Maturi Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

The Rangers (23-7) advanced to state by defeating Class 2A’s eighth-ranked Pequot Lakes Patriots 66-58 in the Section 7-2A Final Friday, March 10, at Brainerd High School.

“I won’t say it’s been overwhelming, but my wife told me I can’t go to the grocery store for the next two months because I’d never be able to leave the store,” Vukelich said. “It’s been amazing. It’s great to see the community embrace this team and really get behind it.”

While a major key to C-I’s win was senior guard Hannah Compton’s 6-of-11 shooting from 3-point to finish with 21 points, the talk when it comes to C-I will be around freshman Tori Oehrlein, who finished with 31 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists, four blocks and a steal against Pequot. Those are or are near the three-year starter’s season average.

Crosby-Ironton girls basketball against Pequot Lakes in the Section 7-2A Final on Friday, March 10, 2023, at Brainerd High School. — Crosby-Ironton's Sami Hachey, middle, goes up for a basket against Pequot Lakes in the Section 7-2A Final on Friday, March 10, 2023, at Brainerd High School.

“We’ve used that phrase a few times already in freshman phenom,” Goodhue head coach Josh Wieme said. “She seems to be every bit of that. She’s a legit, excellent player. She’s strong. Very skilled. Gets her shot off from deep quickly. She has the full skill set.

“The word contain is much more likely than shutdown I think with her. That will be the goal to not let her get easy buckets in transition. She looks like she’s really strong in transition when she gets going. We’ll pay a lot of attention to her and try to stop her early and limit her as much as possible.”

Around the same time C-I was celebrating its section title, Goodhue celebrated its 78-58 victory over Caledonia in the Section 1-2A final. That was the Wildcats' first Section 1-2A title. They were bumped up to Class 2A in 2020 after winning the Class 1A state title in 2016 and 2017 and finishing second in 2019.

Goodhue lost in the 1-2A semifinals last year and advanced to the finals in 2020 and 2021.

In the section final, junior point guard Elisabeth Gadient scored a team-high 26 points. Ten different Wildcats scored in the section final with sophomore forward Kendyl Lodermeier adding 19 points.

According to the Rochester Post Bulletin, “the Wildcats have a ‘big two,’ Gadient and senior forward Tori Miller, with Lodermeier and senior center Jada Scheele just behind them. Gadient averages 19 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals per game, while Miller averages 15 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3 steals and 2.5 assists.

“Lodermeier, who’s made a steady climb in the last month, is at 10 points and 8 rebounds per game and the powerful Scheele at 9 points and 7 rebounds.”

Gadient is a 5-foot-11 point guard which could match up well against C-I’s 5-11 Oehrlein.

“Elisabeth is a really good player, but I think they’re different players,” Wieme said. “They might end up guarding each other quite a bit. I think they are two very, very good players. I know Elisabeth even mentioned seeing her in AAU games so those two have some familiarity with each other.

“We’ve mentioned Elizabeth, but we work really hard to be a balanced approach. We’ve had, on any given night, four players who are double-digit threats in Lodermeier, Scheele and Miller. When we are tough is when we get some extra production or shots hit by some of our youngsters. That’s what we did Friday and that helps us look tough. We’ll try the balanced approach.”

C-I’s section victory was it's 12th straight. During that stretch, the Rangers defeated No. 4 ranked and fourth-seeded New London-Spicer (28-1) 59-58 Feb. 18 and No. 5 seeded and seventh-ranked Minnehaha Academy (22-7) 73-68 Feb. 24. Those two teams will square off in one of the other three quarterfinal matchups.

Top-ranked and top-seeded Providence Academy (27-2) will face No. 9 ranked Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (29-1), while No. 3 seeded Albany (28-1) will face Section 8-2A Champion and No. 11 ranked Perham (26-3) in the other quarterfinal.

“We were hoping to be in the top three so the two was a little bit of a surprise,” Wieme said. “It could have gone anyway. I know the way Crosby-Ironton has finished the season they’ve beaten a lot of teams in the tournament. They had a good argument to be seeded. New London-Spicer has had a great year. Minnehaha Academy has beaten tremendous teams. We were hoping, but we did not expect to get the two seed.”

Goodhue owns a win over Minnehaha Academy 61-58 Jan. 7. It lost to Providence Academy 74-48 Dec. 10 and its other two losses are to Class 3A’s fourth-ranked Stewartville.

The Wildcats average 67.9 points per game while allowing just 43.8.

“We are more man-to-man defense and we tend to pick up three-quarter court,” Warme said. “It’s not end-to-end, but we do like to pressure the ball a little bit and make teams uncomfortable that way We’ll mix some other things in, but that’s our bread and butter, I guess.”

And like the section final, which none of the current Rangers had ever played in before, Vukelich wants his team to focus on the moment and enjoy it.

“Goodhue looks like a strong team,” Vukelich said. “They play good defense and they really hit the boards hard. They rebound extremely well. We might need to come out and show some dominance early. Let them know we are here to play.

“The most important thing we’ve been telling the girls is to have fun and enjoy the moment. It’s a big game, but we’ve been playing very well and we don’t want the girls to get caught up in anything. We’ve done a good job of not doing that so far. And if your shot isn't falling then focus on your defense and do everything else you can to help the team.”

JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 218-855-5856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jeremymillsop .