YME 74, Ortonville 31

GRANITE FALLS — Bailey Mortenson’s 24 points and eight rebounds paved the way for the Yellow Medicine East girls basketball team to take down Ortonville for a lopsided 74-31 win on Thursday night. Mortenson’s 24 points on 12 of 17 shooting were a game-high, while her eight rebounds tied Abigale Bones and Alana Almich for a team-high. Bones and Almich tied with a team-high five offensive boards.

Ella Cherveny and Klaira Shackelford were the Sting’s primary distributors, finishing with six and four assists respectively on Thursday night. They each also had as many points as assists, and Shackelford snagged six steals on the defensive end.

Bayli Sneller and Almich logged 11 and 10 points respectively, including three 3s for Sneller.

Yellow Medicine East (7-6) aims to remain above .500 when it heads to Prinsburg to play Central Minnesota Christian (11-2) on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

KMS 82, TMB 33 

TRACY — The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton girls basketball team suffered an 82-33 loss to an undefeated Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg team Thursday evening. 

The loss marks nine in a row for the Panthers, who haven’t won since their season opener on Nov. 26 over Wabasso. 

KMS built up a 57-10 lead at half time, limiting TMB’s chances at completing a full comeback early on.

Melaina Ankrum finished with a team-high 12 points behind 2 for 4 shooting at the 3-point line. Katelyn Ruppert led the team with five rebounds. 

TMB went 8 for 31 in field goals, and shot 29% from the arc and only attempted four free throws, making two.  

Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (1-9) will look to find the win column when it goes on the road to face Southwest Minnesota Christian (7-4) on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

CMC 67, Minneota 53

MINNEOTA — Long-range shooting struggles plagued the Minneota girls basketball team on Thursday night against Central Minnesota Christian, as the Vikings went 0 of 8 from beyond the arc in a 67-53 loss to the Bluejays.

Prior to the loss, the Vikings had been on a four-game win streak since falling to Class AA No. 8 Minnewaska Area.

Jaylyn Coequyt, Eden Meagher and Sarah Gruenes each scored in double figures for Minneota on Thursday. Coequyt led the team with 19 points on 6 of 15 shooting, as well as 7 of 10 shooting from the charity stripe, while Meagher and Gruenes accounted for 14 and 11 points respectively. The rest of the team combined for 9 points.

Coequyt was the game’s leading rebounder with six boards, while Meagher contributed another five. Yet, no other Viking grabbed more than two rebounds and CMC built a 42-37 advantage on the glass.

Kiersyn Hulzebos dished out five assists for Minneota while Claire Rost contributed another three.

Defensively, Coequyt logged three blocks and a pair of steals.

Minneota (9-4) welcomes a strong opponent tonight, taking on No. 2 Mayer Lutheran (9-1) at 6 p.m.

MACCRAY 57, Canby 54

CANBY — Although down by just a point at halftime in a game that saw five ties and six lead changes, the Canby girls basketball team fell short 57-54 to MACCRAY Thursday evening at home. 

Ava Danielson led the team with 20 points and eight rebounds and shot 55% from the field and went 2 for 4 at the perimeter. 

Brynn Kockelman had a big game on all ends of the court. She tallied 18 points, a team-high six assists and three steals, and went 6 for 8 from the free throw lines with a pair of 3-pointers. 

Emily Nelson tallied 8 points with a second-best six rebounds. 

Canby went into the locker room down 25-24 but were outshot by just one field goal throughout the second half. 

The Lancers shot 33% from the field and 73% from the charity stripe. 

Canby (6-7) looks to return to .500 on the year when it goes on the road to face Ortonville (0-13) on Monday at 7:15 p.m.

RCW 66, DB 57 

RENVILLE — Although Claire Stratmoen and Laura Schreier combined for 33 points, the Dawson-Boys girls basketball team fell to Renville County West 66-57 Thursday evening, snapping a three-game winning streak. 

Stratmoen and Schreier finished with 18 and 15 points respectively, with Schreier shooting a team-high trio of 3-pointers. Alyssa Swedzinksi led with 11 rebounds, eight of which were defensive. 

The Blackjacks went into halftime trailing 33-25, and couldn’t quite make up for it fully despite both teams making 33 points in the second half. 

Overall, Dawson-Boyd shot 39% from the field, and went just 9 of 15 from the free throw line. 

RCW shot 43% from the field and went 10 of 13 at the line. The Jaguars also collected eight steals to the Blackjack’s five, earning them a few more extra point opportunities. 

Dawson-Boyd (4-6) will look to get back on track when it next hosts Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley (6-6) tonight at 7:30 p.m.