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Simley upsets New Prague for 11th straight win

By Shane Koob, Sport Ngin, 03/13/14, 2:30PM CDT

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The Spartans had to rely on outside shooting and a heavy dose of sophomore Abby Kain to upend the Trojans.


Simley guard Maya DeLao, left, and forward Abby Kain, right, collapse on New Prague forward Ella Grote in a Spartan 53-48 win at Washington School in St. Paul. Photos by Rick Orndorf

The injury bug plagued Simley for most of the regular season. Rarely did coach Tim Peper have all five starters in the lineup on any given night.

So when Peper's two towering forwards, sophomore Abby Kain (6-foot-1) and senior Kylie Brown (6-3), were both on the bench with four fouls midway through the second half of the Class 3A, Section 4 championship game against New Prague, the coach wasn't too worried.

"We faced a little bit of adversity there when both our posts got in foul trouble," Peper said. "But then we just had kids that stepped up and made plays, so that was awesome."

Peper said he's never had both Kain and Brown in foul trouble in the same game this year, but his tall posts missed plenty of time during the regular season, so his team wasn't too rattled.

The Spartans haven't looked rattled at all lately.

Simley has smashed any trace of that injury bug from earlier in the season: the third-seeded Spartans' 53-48 win over the No. 1 seed Trojans on Friday night was Simley's 11th victory in a row.

As Peper mentioned, his other players stepped up with Brown (three points) battling foul trouble most of the game and Kain (17 points) trying to deal with two and three defenders at a time.

Senior Marie Paulsen took the challenge head-on, scoring a season-high 12 points, eight points in the first half alone.

"They were really focused on our posts down low, which opened up cross passes for us on the 3-point line," Paulsen said. "I just stuck with the flow of the game and shoot them when I had opportunities."

Paulsen knocked down four 3-pointers for her 12 points, and the Spartans (22-7) overcame turnovers and foul trouble to send them past the Trojans (18-9) to the state tournament. And according to Kain, it feels pretty great.

"Last year, losing in triple overtime (to Hill-Murray) was so devastating," Kain said. "Finally, we get to go to state. It's just an amazing feeling."

The Spartans lost in last year's section final against Hill-Murray on a buzzer-beater in triple overtime. Simley got a little revenge in this year's section tournament, beating Hill-Murray 64-52 in the semifinal game on March 11.

With Friday night's win, Simley is heading to the state tourney, and for a senior such as Paulsen, it's been a long time coming.

"I feel amazing," Paulsen said. "We knew coming into (the section tournament) that we wanted to go to the state tournament. That was our goal."

After all the injuries during the regular season, the Spartans are firing on all cylinders. What's it going to take to keep the streak, and title hopes, alive?

"I just think we've got to keep doing what we've been doing," Peper said. "We've put together a really nice stretch, so I just think we've got to keep doing what we're doing and defend, and offensively just keep attacking like we have been."

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