Edina’s Jill Morton said she knew she had a job to do after Rochester John Marshall opened the second half with five unanswered points to tie the game between the two top-10 ranked Class 4A teams at Edina High School on Saturday.
Morton pulled up and hit a three-pointer to give the Hornets their first points of the half.
“I just think it’s my job, it’s what I have to do,” Morton said in regards to her three-pointer. "It was still pretty early (in the second half), so I wasn’t thinking about it (giving up a lead) too much, but yeah, I knew I needed to make it.”
The basket sparked a 12-0 run that Edina used to take back the lead and take down Rochester John Marshall 42-31, ending the Rockets’ undefeated season.
Rochester John Marshall (13-1), ranked No. 5 by Minnesota Basketball News, showed it was not fazed trailing the Hornets by five points at the start the second half and quickly tied the game 21-21.
Morton’s three-pointer swung momentum back to No. 10 Edina (10-4).
“That was enormous,” Edina coach Matt Nilsen said of Morton’s three-pointer. “That might have been the turning point of the game for us to really get some flow offensively. That’s what she's done for us this year. She’s a senior and a captain, and to knock that one down might have been the turning point.”
Morton finished with a team-high 18 points, even after sitting much of the second half with four fouls.
She also scored her 1,000th career points in the game, adding some icing to the cake that came with the upset.
“It was pretty exciting. It means a lot,” Morton said.
Morton was the scoring catalyst for Edina, but Nilsen also said her proficiency on offense helped put some rest on the defense, which held Rockets’ leading scorer and Arizona State commit Jamie Ruden to just 10 points.
“That was the plan, if it wasn’t obvious,” Nilsen said of his team’s ability to stop Ruden on offense. “She’s at least half their offense and she deserves that attention. We worked two full days on this in practice. We’re really starting to take a game plan and stick to it.”
Ruden had just four points in the second half until she made a three-pointer with 2 seconds remaining in the contest. That shot ended a drought for a Rochester John Marshall team that went without a field goal for 15:02 in the second half.
With Morton out for much of the second half, other Hornets had to carry the scoring burden. Annika Jank had eight points in the second frame and ended the day with 12, proving to be the perfect complement to Morton.
“It gave me a lot of energy to know I could go out there and do something and be strong with it when (Morton) started it,” Jank said. “I wanted to finish it off.”
Edina head coach Matt Nilsen instructs his team during a timeout. Photo by Korey McDermott.
First Report
Senior guard Jill Morton had 18 points to help Edina end Rochester John Marshall’s undefeated season by defeating the Rockets 42-31 in a game featuring two top-10 ranked Class 4A teams at Edina High School on Saturday.
Sophomore forward Annika Jank added 12 points for the Hornets (10-4), ranked No. 10 by Minnesota Basketball News.
Morton hit a pull-up three-point basket early in the second half that sparked a 12-0 and Edina control of the game.
No. 5-4A John Marshall went a total of 15 minutes without a field goal in the second half as the loss halted a 13-game winning streak.
Rockets’ leading scorer Jamie Ruden snapped the scoring drought when she hit a three-pointer with 2 seconds to play. The junior center, who is an Arizona State commit, finished the game with 10 points, while junior center Nicole Fautsch scored a team-high 13 points.
