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Mahtomedi earns statement win over Hastings in league play

By Ricky Campbell, SportsEngine, 01/16/18, 10:45AM CST

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The Zephyrs' Emma Grothaus led all scorers with 25 points.


Emma Grothaus (25) moves through the laneuncontested for the layup as Mahtomedi cruises past conference rival Hastings 68-40. Grothaus led all scorers with 25 points on the night. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

There’s a Minnesota connection at Lehigh University’s women’s basketball program.

Hannah Hedstrom, who was on the 2015-16 Minnetonka girls’ basketball state championship team, went there last season and she was joined this year by Mariah Sexe, a 2017 graduate of East Ridge High School in Woodbury. Joining the Gopher State duo in Pennsylvania next season will be Emma Grothaus, a 6-foot-3 senior forward from Mahtomedi who has put up 28 points three times this season.

On Tuesday, at home against East Metro Conference rival Hastings, Grothaus finished with 25 points en route to a 68-40 dismantling of the Raiders -- a team that, until tonight, was tied with the Zephyrs for the race to the East Metro crown.

Mahtomedi (12-1, 3-0) now controls its own destiny in conference play. It will face Hastings (10-5, 3-1) again on Feb. 16, but Tuesday night’s dominating performance showed the Zephyrs are ready to win the conference again.

Grothaus missed her first layup after the Zephyrs won the opening tip-off. Then she committed the team’s first foul seconds later. Grothaus didn’t make too many mistakes after those.

A minute after her first foul, Grothaus drove to the hoop again. She didn’t miss that layup, and she didn’t miss much more. Mahtomedi’s leading scorer, who came into the night averaging 23.3 points per game, went 2 for 2 from behind the arc and 5 for 9 from the free-throw line.

“Emma has a great night every night,” coach Eric Prose said. “The last couple times we played Hastings, she didn’t play very well last year. She had to make a statement tonight.”

The last time these two teams faced each other -- Feb. 24, 2017 -- Grothaus was held to nine points. Mahtomedi would win that game -- and with it, the Metro East Conference -- 53-46.

“She makes everyone around her stronger and better,” Prose said. “She really does so much for us and helps our team out.”

The Zephyrs’ game plan wasn’t simply to give Grothaus the ball down low, to pound baskets into the smaller Raiders’ lineup: they moved the ball, and moved it well, including giving Annika Sougstad, a 5-foot-10 senior forward who’s headed to MIT this fall, opportunities from three-point-land and from 15 feet out. Sougstad finished the night with 14 points, including a 2-for-6 night from behind the arc.

After suffering a 71-59 loss to Woodbury on Saturday, Hastings came out tough Tuesday night but committed too many turnovers and ran into early foul trouble. The Raiders’ leading scorer, Krystal Carlson, sat on the bench after a late first-half blocking foul -- a penalty coach Padrick Judd thought was a charge, and let the refereeing crew know about it. Judd was given a technical, and Sougstad drained three straight free throws for the Zephyrs.

Carlson finished the night with 12 points despite averaging 19.9 points per game. After going on an 10-2 run and coming within four points of the lead, Carlson’s Raiders slipped and went into the break down 14 points. They never recovered.

Mahtomedi, ranked No. 5 in Class 3A by Minnesota Basketball News, will continue to look to Grothaus for leadership. The difference between this season and last, Prose said, is the characteristics that come with a more veteran status.

“It’s just her confidence all together,” he said about Grothaus before turning to the rest of his team: “They’ve got a chip on their shoulders; they’ve got a mission they want to accomplish and I’m just kind of going for the ride. And it’s fun.”


Annika Sougstad added 14 points, matching her season average as the Zephyrs shut down the Raiders in a Metro East matchup. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

First Report

Mahtomedi, ranked No. 5 in Class 3A by Minnesota Basketball News, beat Metro East Conference rival Hastings 68-40 Tuesday night, solidifying itself as the top team in the conference.

Led by senior forward and Lehigh commit Emma Grothaus and Annika Sougstad, a 5-foot-10 senior forward and MIT commit, the Zephyrs (12-1, 3-0), winners of last year’s conference title after sweeping the Raiders, dominated on both ends of the floor and in nearly every statistical category.

Grothaus finished with a game-high 25 points, including 2 for 2 from behind the arc and 5 for 9 from the free-throw line. Sougstad, who went 2 for 6 in three-pointers, contributed 14.

The leading scorer for Hastings (10-5, 3-1) all season, Krystal Carlson, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, finished with 12 points despite averaging 19.9 points per game. She was pulled before the end of the first half due to foul trouble.

These two teams will face each other again on Feb. 16.


Mahtomedi defense held Hastings leading scorers Mallory Brake (14) and Krystal Carlson (33) to nine and 12 points respectively. Carlson was in early foul trouble and saw limited playing time in the second half. Photo by Cheryl Myers, SportsEngine

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