Suri Gourd (Photo by Noah Clooten)
MAYVILLE — Monday’s Region 2 tournament opener almost had the makings of an upset.
But, despite a 32-point performance by Four Winds/Minnewaukan freshman Suri Gourd, the Lady Indians took a first-round exit. No. 5-seeded FW/M (5-17, 1-8) fell 62-46 to No. 4-seeded Grafton (9-13, 4-5) at Mayville State University. Gourd surpassed 1,000 career points in the loss.
“I think we had a good performance. Better than expected,” Gourd said. “Our defense could have been a little better at rotating.”
The win advanced Grafton to a matchup with the No. 1 seed, No. 3 Devils Lake, on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The Indians’ loss ended their season. It was a campaign beleaguered by various injuries, but one that also showed some young promise.
“We’ve got inexperience. That definitely showed,” FW/M head coach Sean Gourd Sr. said. “We’ve got three starters out with injuries — one with a broken wrist, one with the ACL, one with the meniscus. It’s been tough. It’s been a tough year all year.”
The Indians came out of the gates with energy. Sophia Alberts traded three-pointers with Grafton’s Kate LeClerc, bringing the teams to an early 7-7 tie.
The Spoilers out-rebounded the Indians 10-4 in the first quarter, but two things largely kept FW/M in it: Grafton’s poor free throw shooting and Gourd’s scoring outburst. The teams traded leads before the Indians swung ahead on a 7-0 run that put them up 16-10. Grafton missed seven consecutive free throws and was just 3-of-11 from the line in the first quarter.
LeClerc hit a a three to end FW/M’s run, slicing the lead to 16-13. But Gourd hit a three right before the buzzer of the first quarter, giving her more than 1,000 points for her career. She had 14 in the quarter, and she needed 13 to get there.
The Indians’ lead was as large as 21-13 early in the second quarter. But with Gourd taking a brief breather on the bench, and taking a moment to settle back in once she did reenter, the Spoilers went on a 10-0 run. LeClerc scored six more points to give her 12 in the first half for Grafton.
Two free throws by Cailee Hanson ended the run, tying the game at 23 apiece. Hanson then hit a go-ahead three. She had the first seven FW/M points of the second half.
Gourd made her first field goal of the second quarter to build the lead to four. It was a narrow 29-27 lead at the end of the first half. Gourd was leading the team with 17 points, and Hanson had nine, but the only other Indian points came from Alberts’ three-pointer.
Two points by each of Gourd and Hanson kept FW/M in it early in the second half, tied at 33-33.
But the Spoilers ultimately had more weapons at their disposal. Gourd put the Indians ahead 35-33, and Grafton responded with an 11-0 run. Four different players put up three points or more for Grafton during the third quarter.
The Spoilers opened the fourth quarter with five straight points to run their lead into double digits. But the Indians ran out of gas and couldn’t keep up with a Grafton team that got 24 points from LeClerc, 10 from Savannah Blackcloud, nine from Paityn Ziegelmann, eight from Molly Bjorneby and seven from Annelise Presteng.
“They’ve got good chemistry. It seems like they know where each other are on the floor,” Gourd Sr. said. “They’ve got a nice inside-outside. They’ve got girls that can post up. They’ve got some big girls. They’ve got some shooters out there, girls that can handle the ball. They’re a good team. They were just a little better than us today.”
It didn’t help that Hanson, who was second on the Indians with 11 points, fouled out at 7:18 in the fourth quarter. Gourd, Hanson and Alberts were the only FW/M players to score on Monday.
Even with the game out of reach, Gourd scored nine fourth-quarter points.
“She hates to lose,” Gourd Sr. said. “She’s a competitor. And she leaves it all out there every time.”
The Indians are only losing one senior to graduation. They’ll try to build upon this young core next year.
“I’d like to play another game, or two more games, just to get them some minutes,” Gourd Sr. said. “More minutes on the floor with this environment.”
