JOURNAL Sports

Park girls knock off Roseville, Irondale

Statistically, Park had one of its best outings of the season, holding visiting Irondale to 10 points in the first half and 29 for the game.

But nobody on the Park bench was especially happy with a 40-29 over the last-place team in the conference.

“I think we played really good in the first half,” said sophomore guard Tori Henderson. “But the second half we kind of fell apart as a team. In our Roseville game we played as a team.”

“Compared to Roseville, we all knew our roles, we played our roles well, and we all played together as a team,” said junior forward Bryleigh Dana. “And then today we came out strong, but I feel like we kind of just fell apart and we weren’t like a fist as we call it, we just weren’t playing as a team, we were more individuals and U feel that was the difference. We were a completely different team than we were on Friday.”

On Friday, the Wolfpack went to Roseville and knocked out a 55-52 win over a team contending for the conference crown.

Park played very well defensively in the first half, holding the visitors to just 10 points.

And with a 13-point lead at the break it looked like this game might be a romp for the Wolfpack. It was anything but.

The Irondale Knights suddenly got hot from the outside to start the second half and quickly made it a ballgame, closing to 28-22 with 13:19 to play and then to 30-25 with 9:44 left.

Park held on, but it was a hard-fought, down-ndirty affair in the second half. The Wolfpack got stellar and steady play at point guard from Sydnee Nelson — along with eight second-half points — and scored just enough to keep Irondale at bay.

“I thought Irondale just came with a lot of great energy,” said Park coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “They played hard, they stayed up on it. … At times we didn’t fight back much. I don’t know if we thought we were just going to hand it to them, but we just struggled putting things together offensively. There were shots that didn’t go in.

“Defense-wise we did a good job at least of making them shoot from the perimeter rather than giving them inside looks and some of those shots they got they just made,” Tolkinen added.”

Irondale actually outscored Park in the second half 19-17 but could not make up all of the first-half deficit and came no closer than five points.

Nelson, Tori Henderson and Justine Jameson each scored 10 points for Park.

Park improved to 6-4 in the Suburban East Conference and 10-7 on the season. The Wolfpack have won four of their past five games and nine of their last 11.

With the win, Park has now doubled last year’s victory total of five, with nine games remaining in the regular season.

Irondale fell to 1-11 in the league and 4-15 overall.

Park plays its next two games on the road, going to Cretin Derham Hall (37, 3-11) Thursday, then playing at No. 6 Stillwater (9-1, 14-2) Tuesday, Feb. 8.

White Bear Lake 44, Park 35 The Bears outscored the visiting Wolfpack by seven points in the second half to claim the home court win Wednesday.

Justine Jameson scored 13 points for Park but was the only Wolfpack player in double figures.

Park 55, Roseville 52 Park rallied to overcome host Roseville 55-52 in a Suburban East Conference game Friday.

The Wolfpack trailed 2826 at the half but outscored the hosts by five points in the second half to earn the win.

Justine Jameson put in 22 points and Sydnee Nelson added 10 to lead Park offensively. Tori Henderson and Bryleigh Dana each had nine points.

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