Mankato West celebrated the return of junior wing Livi Downs Thursday by scoring a season high in points in a 77-63 nonconference win over Hutchinson at the West gym.
Downs, who missed a half dozen games with a thumb injury on her shooting hand, showed off her immense all-around skills as the Scarlets (5-8) tuned up for Friday’s rivalry clash with Mankato East at the West gym. Downs fired through 30 points, dished out 11 assists and grabbed eight rebounds to move within two points of reaching the 1,000-point career mark.
“Our practices have been great and I am obviously excited about being back playing,” Downs, a South Dakota commit, said. “It just brings a positive energy for me and we were really passing the ball much better which is something we’ve been working on. We were moving without the ball and looking for our open teammates.
“We were also running in transition and were able to find our teammates in the half court. We switched defenses when they started hitting their 3s and were communicating in switching defenses. We were doing well in our press which is nice because we don’t have any super-sized posts. … It was a tremendous effort defensively.”
West jumped out to 8-0 lead on Downs’ layup off a feed from senior guard Ella Mullenbach along with a pair of left-side 3-pointers from senior guard Jillian Olsen, who put through 12 points on four from beyond the arc. After the Tigers (3-9) tied things at 11-11 behind two 3-pointers from senior guard Zoe Verhasselt and a 12-foot runner and triple from freshman forward Payton Briggman, Mullenbach’s right-side 3-pointer sparked a 14-2 run which made it 25-13 on Downs’ head-on 3-pointer.
“Livi really creates a lot for us on offense and everyone’s confidence seems to be stronger with her in there,” West coach Gretchen Keefe said. “Everyone was taking their shots and that’s important because you can’t score points if no one is shooting. We’ve been working on swinging the ball and having people shoot when they’re open. We keep talking about needing points from more than just two people.
“We’re trying to get everyone confident in their shooting. We’re a good pressing team which causes turnovers by getting steals. They kept hitting those corner shots when our defense was a step behind. We need to work on that by seeing the ball all the time and knowing people are behind us.”
After Hutchinson closed to within 38-34 on Verhasselt’s 8-foot runner, Mullenbach’s top-of-the-key 3-pointer and a transition 3-pointer from Downs boosted the advantage to 44-34. The Tigers continued to roll from long distance (11 of 21) but Downs’ offensive prowess along with four buckets from Romo Smith and seven points from freshman guard Joy Weimer helped close things out.
“Getting Livi back was huge,” Larsen said. “I mean she’s our leader on the court and it gave us a big morale boost having her back on the floor. The way she was able to score the ball tonight was really big for us. I was open and my teammates were getting me the ball. We were passing the ball better than we normally do. We had some team bonding over Christmas break and it helped us trust each other more.”
Mullenbach finished with 14 points as the Scarlets connected on 32 of 68 from the field for 47%. Hutch, which dropped through 22 of 56 attempts for 39%, was led by Verhasselt’s 29 points and Briggman’s 19. West won the boards 36-34 and committed fewer turnovers 18-14.