It was a good overall team win, I think, we all played together and that was something we needed to do.”

Gracie Smith

Park started off painfully slowly, not making a field goal for the first eight minutes of the game and trailing 13-2 at 10:43 of the first half.

But in the end the Wolfpack were firing in clutch threes from long range in a much-needed 47-43 win over visiting Bloomington Jefferson at Cottage Grove Friday.

The win snapped a five-game Wolfpack losing streak.

Park trailed early, tied the game at 13-all, but were still down 22-18 at the half, which was kind of a remarkable place considering the Wolfpack didn’t put score a field goal until the 8:03 mark of the first half. Park hung in there by making free throws.

But a Park still in the game after a cold first half and as the second half heated up, so did the Wolfpack. Back-to-back threes by Gracie Smith and Olivia Czarnota lifted Park to a 26-21 lead. Smith drained another three a few minutes later to make it a 29-28 Park edge and Mariah Nasby followed with a three of her own for a 32-28 Wolfpack advantage with 9:54 to play.

Park then kept a narrow lead the rest of the way and eventually won the second half 29-21.

Smith scored 17 and Olivia Czarnota 16 to pace Park offensively. Smith scored 10 of her 17 points in the second half, including a clutch pair of three-point field goals. Czarnota had 10 of her 16 after the break and like Smith, drained a crucial pair of three-point shots.

“It was a good overall team win, I think, we all played together,” said Smith. “And that was something we needed to do.

“Probably moving the ball,” said Smith when asked what Park did better in this game than the past few. “None of us were being selfish so we were definitely given it an extra pass. And our shooting percentage was definitely better than it has been before.”

“I think it really helps us push things forward for the rest of our season,” said Czarnota. “It just kind of gets us ready to get going for the rest for the games.”

The Wolfpack still needs to work on boxing out and rebounding and limiting opponent’s second chance opportunities, Czarnota noted.

Park improved to 6-12 on the season. With the win, the Wolfpack are 5-1 outside of the Suburban East Conference.

“I think we executed better on offense, made more shots, like last time we just didn’t knock down shots, and we actually tried to get in the paint more instead of just settling for the outside shots,” said Park head coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “We just tried to do a little different action to get into our offense instead of the same way to get in and I was just calling some different initial action which maybe helped open some things up a little bit for us and then open up our shooters as well and then knocking down those shots is huge. And I thought our defensive discipline was better in the second half. The girls were talking better, figuring out some of their action and we did a better job.”

Park (6-12, 1-11) hosts Roseville (12-4, 6-4) Thursday, starting at 7 p.m.

Woodbury 49, Park 28

Park slipped to 1-11 in the Suburban East Conference and 5-12 on the season in a 49-28 loss Friday at Woodbury.

The Royals led 24-13 at the half, then won the second half 25-15.

Olivia Czarnota again led Park in scoring with 8 points.

Cretin-Derham Hall 66, Park 35

Host Cretin-Derham Hall doubled up the scores in both halves on the visiting Wolfpack in a 66-35 win at St. Paul Tuesday.

The Raiders (11-6, 8-2) won the first half 33-17 and the second 33-18.

Park (5-11, 1-10) was led by Olivia Czarnota’s 17 points.