Trailing by double digits early against one of the top-rated Class A teams in Minnesota was too much to overcome Thursday for Littlefork-Big Falls’ girls basketball team.
The Vikings ended up losing at home to Mountain Iron-Buhl, 59-28.
L-BF’s season record dropped to 4-2, while the Rangers, rated No. 6 in the latest Minnesota Basketball News rankings, improved to 7-0.
“I think we played pretty well, considering we were playing one of the better teams in our Section,” said Vikings head coach John Larson. “It just kind of hurts us when we hurt ourselves, but defensively we played pretty well.”
MI-B held a 16-3 lead with about 14:30 before halftime and then extended the lead to 39-14 at intermission.
Paige DeLack made L-BF’s only 3-pointer to start the second half, which the Rangers’ Mya Buffetta responded to with one of her three 3-pointers for the game.
Then both teams had trouble scoring until about midway through the second half when MI-B led 44-19.
Though the Rangers used full-court pressure defense for much of the game, Larson said the Vikings handled the press well overall.
“We were able to get the ball in the middle and break the press, and towards the end of the game they actually took it off,” he said. “We’re doing a lot better than last year with the turnover ratio in games.”
Brooke Millerbernd led L-BF in scoring with 14 points.
Two MI-B players scored in double figures. Buffetta had a game-high 15, while Dakotah Winans added 13.
The Vikings next host Lake of the Woods on Tuesday.
