Park won the war but lost a warrior in the battle Friday night.

The host Wolfpack defeated visiting Mounds View 48-40, but leading scorer Justine Jameson was knocked out of the game with a broken nose and a possible concussion.

Jameson, a 5-10 junior guard/forward, collided with two other players in a scrum under the basket midway through the second half. She fell to the floor and had to be helped to the sidelines and then the locker room.

“She’s at the emergency room,” said Park head coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “She has a broken nose. I didn’t exactly see it, I know she hit the floor.

“Our hearts are with Justine right now and hoping that it’s not a concussion and not too severe of a break and maybe we can have her for the post season,” Tolkinen added.

Jameson had been on a tear prior to being hurt, and still led Park in scoring with 17 points, all scored in the first half.

Junior point guard Elsa Olson scored 11 points and provided steady leadership on the top of the key for the Wolfpack.

Park boosted its record to 4-11, one game ahead of Mounds View in the Suburban East Conference.

The Wolfpack snapped a four-game losing streak with the win.

Park got off to a slow start and trailed 12-4 after the first seven minutes. But the Wolfpack figured out how to attack Mound View’s defense and outscored the visitors 23-8 the rest of the first half to take a 27-20 lead at the break.

“We started out again a little slow, sometimes we just don’t always get that quick start, that energetic start,” said Tolkinen. “We had a great one against East Ridge, great energy the whole game. Just a little different here tonight. And Mounds View, they just hustle. They just are so scrappy and they just get after it. Sometimes it’s really hard to play organized because of the way they play. Our kids, sometimes it’s tough to make some decisions against that that type of play.

“We bent but we didn’t break,” Tolkinen added. “And I give our girls the credit.”

Park led 33-22 with 11:33 to play and seemingly had the game in hand before the Mustangs rallied. Mounds View chopped Park’s lead all the way down to 43-40 with a minute to play.

But Park made four clutch free throws in the final minute and played tough defense to keep the Mustangs at bay.

“I just thought our energy was really good,” said sophomore guard Bryleigh Dana. “We didn’t get down on ourselves and we kept going and building off of each other, and even when it got close we just kept going.”

Park wraps up the regular season this week with an away game at Cretin-Derham Hall (5-10) on Wednesday, March 10 and then a season finale at home Friday, March 12, against Irondale (3-12).

Park junior guard Elsa Olson drives to the basket against Mounds View Friday night. Olson had 11 points in Park’s 48-40 win. Photo by John Molene