Cailee Hanson and Mercie Morgan get reset between possessions in a recent game. (Photo by Mojo Hill)
FORT TOTTEN — A 35-7 lead became as tight as 65-56 for Four Winds/Minnewaukan.
But the Lady Indians got it done anyway, winning 74-63 over Sargent County (2-4) at Four Winds High School on Friday to improve to 7-1 on the season. They’re coming off a season where they won just four games.
“We’ll take 7-1 because yeah, last year was a tough year,” Indians head coach Sean Gourd Sr. said. “Hopefully we just keep getting better.”
FW/M got 30 points from Suri Gourd, who’s averaging more than 29 per game. But they also got a boost from Cailee Hanson, who put up 14 in the first quarter and 27 overall. The Indians combined to make 11 three-pointers, including nine in the first half.
Sargent County charged back to get the lead to a single digit on two separate occasions in the fourth quarter.
“Maybe two quarters, three quarters, we played hard,” Gourd Sr. said. “But there was some spurts in there that we just lost focus. We just kind of coasted, and especially on the defensive end. … We can’t do that against good teams.”
Hanson hit four triples in the first quarter to give the Indians an early explosion. She scored 11 of the game’s first 12 points, with FW/M up 12-0.
Sargent County had some size inside but couldn’t convert its put-back opportunities. The Bulldogs didn’t score until the 3:20 mark in the first quarter, and they didn’t make a field goal until the final minute of the period.
FW/M led 21-1 at one point in the first quarter. Gourd added three triples in the quarter. She and Hanson combined for 25 points as the Indians took a 26-5 lead into the second quarter.
Sargent County’s Mallory Bogart scored 10 points in the second quarter, including a triple to make it 46-25 at halftime.
Gourd and Hanson cooled off while Longie got going with a pair of three-pointers.
FW/M, after making nine triples in the first half, finally saw its offense start to stall late in the second quarter, building into the third. Sargent County made four triples of its own in the third quarter.
An 8-0 run made it 55-45 in a hurry.
“Sargent County, they’re scrappy. They hung in there,” Gourd Sr. said. “And we let them get hot. We let them get confident. And we let them back in the game. And that’s just part of our game that we need to get better at.”
When the Indians needed a spark, they got it from their star in Gourd. While Hanson had stolen the early spotlight, Gourd made a string of baskets late in the third quarter to give FW/M some breathing room back. She scored 11 in the third quarter.
“That’s one thing I haven’t had in a while, was somebody that, we need a basket: ‘Give me the ball, I’m gonna go make something happen,’” Gourd Sr. said. “She puts in a lot of work, and to have that mindset of ‘We need a bucket.’”
The Indians led by 18 at the end of the third quarter. But the Bulldogs responded back with six in a row of their own. Bogart’s fourth triple got the lead back to single-digit territory.
Hanson, though, got back on the board with her fifth three-pointer of the game. Gourd added six points. The Indians’ offensive attack ultimately proved too much for Sargent County, despite some defensive lapses in the middle of the game.
“We’ve got some seniors on our team, but that doesn’t mean we have experience,” Gourd Sr. said. “We got the knife in, got the dagger in their stomach; we’ve got to turn it. We didn’t do that tonight.”
Hanson is now averaging more than 12 points per game. Longie has over nine.
When those two are hovering around double figures, and Gourd is putting up 30 a game, the Indians’ offense can do some serious damage.
“We definitely need that second or third scorer. A fourth scorer would be nice,” Gourd Sr. said. “But it’s always nice when we’ve got girls hitting. [Hanson] got hot early. She had 27 overall. That’s a bonus for us. We’ll take that if we can get that. I’m hoping that we should be able to compete with a lot of teams.”
For Sargent County, Bogart led with 28 points, including 17 in the second half. Karleigh Kadoun had 17 to help the Bulldogs’ near-comeback.
“We’ve just got to stay focused for the enture four quarters of the game,” Gourd Sr said. “And tonight, it was spotty. We should have had better defensive possessions, I thought.”
The Indians have won seven of their first eight games. But now they’re entering the tougher part of their schedule. Their next two games are two-point region contests against May-Port-C-G and Carrington. They’re 2-0 in region play so far, with both points coming in a win over Grafton.
“Those are two good teams,” Gourd Sr. said. “We have to get some more video on May-Port. Andy [Braaten] in Carrington always has a tough team. He’s always in the mix of things. And it’s not going to be a cake walk for us, for sure. I’m assuming we’re the underdog still with those games. But we’ve just got to keep building and moving in the right direction.”
