(KWMN)- The Winona Senior High Girl’s Basketball team inched out a victory over Rochester Mayo last night, to hand the Spartans their first conference loss of the season.
Freshman guard Alivia Bell was instrumental in the victory, scoring 22 points and none more important than her contested lay-in with 10 seconds to play to take the lead. Senior Mackenzie Simmons backed her up with 18 points off six triples. The Winhawks improved to 17-6 on the season, and 14-4 in the Big Nine Conference.
Head coach for the Winhawks, Tim Gleason, told the WSN afterwards,
“That’s (Rochester Mayo) a great basketball team…We knew it was going to be a fight all night…We maintained our composure all the way up to the end there. We just answered them every time. And that’s a sign of a good team.”
The Winhawks controlled the majority of the game. Starting the tilt on a 20-7 run and leading for the whole first half. Mayo never went away quietly, and in the second half quickly found their way back into it, tying it up at 33 a piece. Mayo didn’t earn their first lead until under five minutes to go, when 8th grader Amelia Mills drained a deep three to take a 51-50 lead. As Gleason said, however, the Winhawks never lost their composure.
Thanks to big shots from Simmons, and the aforementioned Bell late in the game, the Winhawks earned the victory 59-57.
Winona handed Rochester Mayo their first conference loss, not only of the season, but their first since Feb. 7th, 2023. Mayo, led by Senior Ava Miller, and Amelia Mills, had been a dominant force in the Big Nine for the last year, but all streaks must end.
“It’s incredible. I don’t get without words much. But that’s one of them. I can’t say enough about that bunch of girls and how hard they work,” Gleason said, while getting emotional, “You know there’s some of them that have been around for a long time. And they’ve seen some years that were really hard. And they stuck with it. That’s for them.”
The Winhawks get their biggest win of the season with just three games to play. They’ll face Mankato West on Friday on the road, then back at home with Red Wing, and close out the regular season in Austin on Feb. 22nd. A win like this can propel teams to another level, but they can also cause a hangover of sorts moving forward. Gleason hopes its the former,
“Confidence you usually earn. I think you earn a little confidence [last night]…Hopefully you don’t take anybody for granted, you take care of business and see what the section has for us.”
The section will be far from easy, with familiar conference opponents like Albert Lea, Austin, and Faribault to fend off, they’ll also have to deal with Byron, who ranks 8th in class 3A. Winona still has three games to focus on first, but once March rolls around–as we know–anything can happen.
Other Scores from Area Teams:
Boys Basketball
Cotter 65-45 Randolph
Rushford-Peterson 70-94 Caledonia
Winona 60-70 Rochester Mayo
Girls Basketball
Rushford-Peterson 40-65 Caledonia
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