Visiting Burnsville showed a veteran Park team there’s work to be done Thursday in the season opener for both teams, winning almost all of the battles in a 53-41 non-conference decision.

Park struggled at times in most phases of the game Thursday, shooting, defense, rebounding and going after loose balls.

“I just thought that Burnsville came out with a lot of energy and I just think that energy … they didn’t bend a lot and I think that we just tried to do things too hard,” said Park head coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “We tried too hard sometimes to make things happen.

“And we had some open threes, but I don’t know if we totally trusted our offense at times,” Tolkinen continued. “Sometimes we kind of bailed out on our offense. But it wasn’t necessarily about the offense. They outboxed us, they out rebounded us and they outplayed us. “

Burnsville turned an early 8-7 lead into a 17-12 edge midway through the first quarter and the Wolfpack could never cut into that narrow gap.

The Blaze led 24-19 at the half and opened the second half with a decisive 15-2 run to take a commanding 39-21 lead with 11:57 left in the game.

Junior guard Tori Henderson got the Wolfpack back in contention with some clutch long-range shooting – she made four 3-point goals in the game and two in the second half – and Park closed to 49-41 with 3:21 left. But Henderson couldn’t get enough offensive help and the Wolfpack could come to closer.

Henderson led Park with 16 points and sophomore guard Graycie Smith came off the bench to add 10. Park’s offense seemed out of synch most of the game. Starters Sydney Nelson, Edie Walton, Bryleigh Dana and Emma Ambroz combined for just 12 points.

Park (0-1) plays at White Bear Lake (3-0) Friday, starting at 7 p.m.

Park junior guard Tori Henderson led the Wolfpack with 16 points against Burnsville Thursday. Photo by John Molene