Mar. 10—WORTHINGTON — The NJCAA Division III Tournament is on the horizon for Minnesota West women’s basketball with history and a little redemption on the line.
The Lady Jays (23-5) enter nationals as the No. 1 team in the nation and Region 13A champions, and they’ve had a target on their back.
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The Jays know they have been the team to beat for most of the season and are after a second national championship in the last three years.
They beat Central Lakes and Ridgewater to win the region title by an average of 36.5 points.
That clinched them the No. 1 seed in the upcoming national tournament, which will be March 11-14 at the Brownwood Coliseum in Brownwood, Texas.
“We know that that number one seed, there’s a target on our back, and so we know we have to be ready,” said Lady Jays coach Rosalie Hayenga-Hostikka. “We’ve said it for the last probably month that we’re not going to sneak up on anybody and so you’ve got to be playing good basketball, which I think we are, but for the most part, we’re just really excited to be back.”
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The top seed comes with a first-round bye, a big advantage in a four-day tournament with no days off. The bye also allows the Jays to scout their future quarterfinal opponent in a game, which will be the winner of No. 9 Bronx CC and No. 8 Onondaga.
“I would way rather have the bye and be able to have the girls get in the gym that first day, and kind of watch and get settled in and see the styles and be able to see them live,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “Film is great, but it’s not the same as watching a team live and really getting a feel. So I think that’s a huge advantage, too, that we’ll get to watch them.”
Bronx CC is 18-5 this season and received one of the four at-large bids after falling in the Region 15 semifinals. The Broncos are in nationals for the first time.
Onondaga, who the Lady Jays beat in the national quarterfinals last year, is 23-4 and the Region 3 runner-up. The Lazers are making a fifth straight national tourney.
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The game between Bronx CC and Onondaga will be on Wednesday and the winner will face the Jays the following day at 12 p.m.
Other teams on the same side of the bracket include No. 4 Monroe-Bronx, No. 5 Fulton-Montgomery and No. 12 RCSJ-Gloucester. The other side of the bracket includes other Region 13 teams like second-seeded Anoka-Ramsey and No. 6 Northland.
The Lady Jays, meanwhile are entering nationals with confidence at an all-time high.
They have been a team led by motivation from the four returning sophomores, who didn’t end last season the way they wanted to in nationals.
Katrina Schutz is one of those sophomores with plenty of incentive to make it back to nationals after finishing fourth last year and just one win away from the title game.
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“That is the biggest motivator 100%,” Schutz said. “We know that we were perfectly set to make that championship game. Would we have won it? I don’t know. But just being in that championship game would have been something great to experience, and we want to get to that.”
Schutz has seen her game improve this year after an already successful season last year when she averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds. This year, she is scoring 16.4 points at 51.2% from the field along with 9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.9 blocks per game.
The increase in production from the 6-foot forward has led her to become the MCAC South Player of the Year. Her confidence this season has also gone up significantly.
“My confidence is through the roof compared to last year,” Schutz said. “I had a terrific season and so that’s just built on my confidence leading up to nationals now. So I think that just comes with trusting the process a little bit.”
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Another returning sophomore high on motivation is All-MCAC South Division member Sadie Krahling.
The Adrian native is averaging 14.9 points, 2.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game. Krahling’s scoring production has gone down a bit this year, but her increase in field goal percentage, assists and steals has more than made up for it.
“My role is maybe a little bit different than what it was last year,” Krahling said. “I feel like this year I’m still scoring quite a bit during the game and stuff like that, but I feel like I’m doing a really good job at just making the extra pass and seeing that open look instead of taking a shot that’s a good shot, getting it to my teammate who can take a great shot.”
Krahling also said she is much more composed this year and playing her best basketball right now. She, along with fellow returning sophomores Maddie Kamm and Jayda Hellewell, have all stepped up as leaders with experience on their side. They have also done a great job bonding with the rest of the team.
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“I think it really helps all of us get along so well, like we just mesh very, very well,” Krahling said. “So I think that’s the best part about our team is we just get along so well outside of basketball, and I feel like that just translates right on to the court.”
Indeed, the togetherness of the team has shown with its play on the court all season. The Lady Jays lead the nation in assists per game at 21.1, a stat Hayenga-Hostikka is very proud of, which shows the team’s great ball movement.
Not only that, but the Jays are also tops in the nation in scoring at 84.2 points per game and are top five in field goal percentage (45.7%) and 3-point percentage (35.1%).
Other individual leaders for the Jays include the sophomore point guard Kamm and her 6.1 assists per game, which are top five in the nation. She was also named to the All-MCAC South Division first team.
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Freshman Payton Reimers was named to the all-division second team with 14.5 points per game at 44.1% from the field, 4.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
But the entire Lady Jay lineup has been very productive all year with all nine players capable of consistently scoring in double figures. The sophomore Hellewell, along with freshman sharpshooter Izzy Klumper are other starters with plenty of talent, as are freshmen role players like Katelyn Frodermann, Ayla Texley and Anistasia Smith.
But the depth is perhaps better than any other Lady Jay squad under Hayenga-Hostikka and it has been a major reason behind the team’s success and style of play.
“I think it just goes back to us being just a cohesive team and really getting along,” Schutz said. “Everyone buys into their role, and we buy into this team, and everyone is just super excited for everyone else’s success. We love to make that extra pass and give our teammates the opportunity to have that highlight and score and have that play.”
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After a non-conference slate where they went 11-5, the Jays tore through the south division of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference, which saw them go 10-0 for the first time in program history.
They also knocked off at the time No. 1 Anoka-Ramsey on the road and have been the top-ranked team for the next seven weeks.
Now they are just three wins away from a national title, but have been set on not letting complacency get in the way.
“I kind of keep telling them, like, you cannot take anybody for granted,” Hayenga-Hostikka said. “Every time you go out, you can’t worry about your opponent so much, but just worry about you doing the little things correctly, doing the things that we’ve been working on for five months, the things that kind of got us here.”
