senior guard Maddy Beaty led a late-game surge Tuesday night to lead Mankato East past Mankato West 71-67 in a Big Nine Conference overtime clash at Bresnan Arena.
Trailing 54-44 with five minutes remaining, the Cougars (3-21 overall, 3-2 in Big Nine) scored 11 straight points to gain a 55-54 advantage on senior power forward Kylinn Stangl’s inside basket with 1:22 to go. Senior Hannah Full’s top-of-the-key 3-pointer triggered the burst before junior forward Ariet Omot followed with two free throws and an 8-foot turnaround to go with junior guard Hayden Henning’s two foul shots.
After senior guard Ella Mullenbach’s driving basket put the Scarlets in front 59-57 to start the extra session, Beaty, who ended up with a career-high 23 points to go along with four assists and two steals, buried a right-baseline 3-pointer before Stangl’s right-wing triple gave East a 63-62 lead.
West, which lost junior scoring ace Livi Downs with 14 seconds to go on a fifth foul — Henning converted a pair of free throws to tie things — never recovered and Stangl’s turn around banker set up Henning’s game-clinching two foul shots with 5.5 seconds to go.
“We have a motto at practice every day, why not us?” Beaty said. “We used that to our advantage because we knew coming in that they had two really good players we needed to shut down and then work off that. I just tried to do my job for the team by stepping up and being that senior leader.
“We just needed to play our game. We’re not a fast paced team so we needed to slow things down and play at our level. We really came together at halftime and got rewarded at the end.”
West (9-16, 5-10) looked like it might blow things open when 15-first half turnovers by the Cougars enabled them to take a 24-10 lead. Senior forward Rachel Younge fired in a trio of 3-pointers and a follow-up basket as the Scarlets expanded the margin to 34-19.
However, freshman guard Samantha Williams closed out the half by connecting on a right-wing 3-pointer to give East some momentum heading into the second half.
“We started out with a lot of confidence and our defense over the first half was a lot better,” West coach Gretchen Keefe said. “We slacked off defensively in the second half and that eventually decided the game. We caused less turnovers and that gave us fewer opportunities to get to the basket.”
East, which connected on 22 of 47 from the field for 46% compared to the Scarlets’ 25 of 70 for 35.7%, trailed for much of the second half as junior forward Romo Smith worked the interior for four baskets and a triple on her way to a 19-point performance.
“When we come out and play individually things don’t work out for us,” Henning, who finished with 13 points, said. “We started talking more in the second half and played more together to get the win.”
Full tallied 11 points, eight rebounds and three steals for the winners, who also received nine points, nine boards and three steals from Stangl along with six points and six rebounds from Omot. Downs and Younge put through 14 points apiece for the Scarlets with Downs and Younge grabbing 10 and eight rebounds, respectively. Mullenbach chipped in 12 points, five rebounds and four steals.
“We really focused on controlling the pace in the second half,” East coach Ana Boever said. “We didn’t let their pressure rush us and Maddy has really come out as a leader both verbally and as a coach on the court. We were trying too many things defensively in the first half and it seemed to be confusing them. We tried to take away their key players in the second half and it made a big difference.”
West plays its final regular season game Thursday at Rochester Century and East closes things out Friday at Red Wing.