Photo by Chad Koenen
Senior Lila Thorson tries to hit a teammate running down the court last week.

The Henning girls basketball team only had one game this past week and that allowed the team to get some better practice time as they search for their first victory with this young squad. On Thursday the Hornets hosted Pillager in a Park Region Conference game and were down three girls with two out with injuries and one with sickness.  

The girls started out a little rough, turning the ball over too many times, but after falling behind early they fought back to take a lead about half way through the first half.  Then Pillager was able to go on a run and they held a slight lead of 28-25 heading into halftime.

Photo by Chad Koenen
Callie Thompson defends a Pillager ball handler near the 3-point line in the second half of Thursday’s game in Henning.

The Hornets had a cold spell to start the second half, accompanied by too many turnovers again and fell behind by as much as 9 points before the girls got things together and fought back with some solid defense and some timely shooting. Unfortunately Henning lost by the final score of 55-54.

As a team the Hornets know we had too many turnovers, which led to a 25-7 advantage for Pillager in the points off of turnovers. That is huge any game, but especially difficult to stomach in a 1 point loss. With a few different line-ups out there the girls had different girls step up in a variety of ways.  

Sophomore Callie Thompson led the team in scoring, showing her aggressiveness getting to the basket and free throw line, while also knocking down a couple of 3-pointers to finish with 15 points to go along with 7 rebounds. 

Freshman Addison Bode continued her strong play finishing with 12 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals. Freshman Abbigale Godding got her first significant varsity time and while she showed a few early jitters she settled down and had a great game finishing with 12 points going 4-4 on 3-pointers. 

Fellow freshman Alivia Emter just missed her first career double-double in her first start as she finished with 9 points and at 5 foot 3 inches grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds. Senior Lila Thorson didn’t get a lot of looks offensively, but played solid with 8 rebounds, a team high 3 assists and also 2 steals.

While these girls and the coaches want wins so badly, they know we have a lot of learning to do and head coach Mike Hepola thinks this is a game that they can learn from a bunch of goods, while also looking and correcting plenty of bads.  

This coming week before heading into Christmas Break we have two more games as Henning travels to Sebeka on Tuesday for another PRC game, before hosting Brandon-Evansville on Thursday night.  

Individual Stats

Callie Thompson 15 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals

Alivia Emter 9 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist

Tiffany Weber 2 points, 1 rebound

Addison Bode 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals, 1 block

Bella Olson 1 point, 4 rebounds, 1 assist

Abbigale Godding 12 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal

Lila Thorson 3 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals. 1 block