Mayo Pulls Away From Owatonna in Second Half
Rochester Mayo swept Owatonna basketball Friday night in the first meetings of the season between the teams. The Mayo boys won 100-86 at OHS. The Spartan girls prevailed 72-46 in Rochester. The scores at halftime were close in each case.
In the boys game, Mayo led 50-47 at the half as Division I-bound Gabe Madsen hit a half-court three at the buzzer. Madsen scored 44 points on the night. His twin Mason scored 16 before being ejected from the game for his second technical foul midway through the second half. The two have committed to play basketball at Cincinnati.
The game featured some high emotion, as Huskies coach Josh Williams spoke about on Saturday's KRFO High School Coaches Show, "It was a lot of fun. The crowd was great. Energy in the gym was just a lot of fun, high school basketball atmosphere. Student section was awesome. They were into the game all night. Guys on the court, guys on the bench, it was just a really fun game."
"We showed some mental toughness last night. For those people that were, they saw there was some issues. How kids were acting and decisions they were making. To our kids credit, they didn't get up in that. Actually talked about that before the game. When emotions start going, staying mentally engaged and making the right choice and understand how we want to play. And our kids really did a great job of that, I thought."
"Not only did they compete like crazy for 36 minutes but they showed the character of themselves and I was really proud of that as well."
Evan Dushek had a career night with 37 points and 13 or 14 rebounds. Brayden Williams added 28 in the 100-86 loss. Owatonna travels to the Wisconsin Dells on December 27-28.
The Owatonna girls got behind 16-6 early at Mayo, but rallied to take a brief 23-22 lead late in the first half before the Spartans grabbed a 33-27 halftime advantage. Mayo's 6-foot-3 junior center Anna Miller had three blocked shots early and ended up with 14 points and about 12 rebounds. Mayo's Lynnsey Hady drilled several long three pointers including one right before the halftime buzzer and led the night with 18 points.
Mayo dialed up an attacking, trapping defense in the second half that led to about 15 OHS turnovers. The Spartans went on a 10-0 and 8-0 run in the second half to come out on top 72-46. Rochester was 19-for-21 from the free throw line.
Owatonna was led by Sarah Kingland's 13 points. Sara Anderson and Holly Buytaert added ten each. The Huskies play No. 1-AA Rochester Lourdes Friday, December 27 at 4 pm at the Mayo Civic Center in a holiday tournament.