Hastings wins opener, 81-13

The Hastings girls basketball season got off to a great start Thursday night with an 81-13 win over Minneapolis Edison. The Raiders outscored the Tommies 43-10 in the first half and 38-3 in the second half.

“The girls got a chance to work on some things we’ve been talking about, and we got a little confidence boost,” coach Mike Harp said. “It was nice to start the year off with a win, and all 12 kids scored.”

Three Hastings players finished in double figures. The Raiders were led by Hanna Norman, who had 15 points. Jordan Marshall had 11 and Kelsey Nelson finished with 10.

Also scoring were: Morgan Tjomsland 3, Hanah Martin 5, Sabrina Astar 7, Lexie Harp 3, Nicole Hollar 2, Lauren Thomas 8, Becky Church 9, Jill Weinzettel 4 and Ashley Bayne 4.

Sibley tournament

Hastings played in a tournament at Henry Sibley on Friday and Saturday. The Raiders lost the opener to Sibley, 74-56.

The good news was that Hastings got to the free-throw line 33 times. The bad news was that the team made just 12 of those attempts.

“Poor free throw shooting and poor defense hurt us in that game,” Harp said. “We want to get to the line 25 to 30 times a game, and we did. Unfortunately, we were able to only make 12 of those 33.”

Defensively, Hastings had trouble with the bigger Sibley team.

“We played very poor help defense,” Harp said. “They were able to get some easy buckets inside. It was a game where we played pretty well offensively, but we didn’t play well enough defensively to win.”

Hastings was led in scoring by Norman, who had 14. Thomas had 7 and Tjomsland 6. Martin finished with 5, Astar had 2, Nelson had 4, Harp had 3, Hollar had 4, Marshall had 5, Church had 4 and Bayne had 2.

In the tournament’s second game, Hastings lost to South St. Paul, 71-39.

The Packers held a slim one-point lead with about six minutes to play in the first half, but from that point on, they dominated and won going away.

The story of the game for Hastings was turnovers – the team had 36 of them.

“You aren’t going to win any games with 36 turnovers,” Harp said.

South St. Paul shot the ball well throughout the game, including eight three-pointers in the first half.

“That’s a senior-oriented guard team,” Harp said. “They played very, very well and we helped them out by not playing very good defense and by turning the ball over too much.”

Tjomsland led Hastings in scoring with 7 points. Marshall had 6, Norman had 5, Nelson had 5, Harp had 5, Astar had 4, Thomas had 3, Weinzettel had 2 and Hollar had 2.

Tuesday

Hastings lost to Mahtomedi on Tuesday night in Hastings, 54-39.

Norman led Hastings in scoring with 9 points. Nelson had 6, Harp had 6, Weinzettel had 6, Tjomsland had 5, Marshall had 4 and Thomas had 3.

Tags: raider basketball, sports, prep, hastings, minnesota, spiral