“Lakeville North is very aggressive,” Mitchell said. “They take you out of everything you want to do and they make you play faster than you want to, so you need to be patient against them. Every day we work on defensive rebounds and team rebounds to go against someone like Wilson, who’s a really good post player.”

After the Panthers scored the first basket of the game, the Sabers were quick to even it up and after taking the lead on the next free throw, they never trailed the rest of the game. Just eleven minutes into the game, the Sabers had already scored half of their points on the night. They jumped out to a 12-3 lead five minutes into the game and doubled that point total in the next six minutes, leading 24-12. From there, the Sabers slowed down the pace and then scored 23 points in the game’s final 25 minutes.

The Sabers had three players with double-digit points, led by senior Kate Cordes. She recorded 17 points, followed closely by Jasmyn Hale’s 14 points — tying a season high for the senior. Noted as one of the best shooters Mitchell has coached in his 15 years, Mitchell gives Cordes high praise for her talent as well as her leadership.

“She’s been playing on our team since she was a freshman, so she really understands our game,” Mitchell said. “She’s a leader, she’s smart, has great basketball IQ, and is a great coach out on the floor. When things get tough, you look to her.”

Despite their 16-game streak entering Tuesday’s game and a 10-point win against the Panthers in the teams’ last matchup, Cordes echoed Mitchell’s game plan of intensity and fighting for every rebound. The repetitive rebounding drills worked in their favor, as the Sabers were often first to any open ball around the basket.

“Lakeville North always super high energy, so we have to finish with physicality and be strong with the ball,” Cordes said. “We knew that they were going to come out intense, so we knew we had to come back even harder. We’ve been pretty good on defense all season, so after we were up by 12 points, we tried to be more patient on offense and we knew our defense would help us out.”