Komets are HVL Champions in Girls Basketball

Two very good girls basketball teams collided on the hardwood in Kasson on Saturday night for the overall Hiawatha Valley League championship, and the fans were treated to a great game. It was a rematch of last year's title tilt with Kenyon-Wanamingo facing the Kasson-Mantorville Komets.

Last season, K-W came out on top 55-48. The Knights scored 55 points again, but gave up 56 in a thriller. Kasson-Mantorville led 23-19 at the half.

With 10 minutes to go in the game, the Komets were clinging to a 38-36 lead. With 6:25 to go, Kenyon-Wanamingo took the lead 45-44. With 5:23 to go, it was a 47-47 game. With 3:26 to go, it was 50-50.

Fast forward to the final minute of the game and you have a little bit of everything. With 1:09 to go, the Knights led 53-52 and had the ball. K-M used the final foul they had to give, and it looked like K-W was going to hold the ball and force the Komets to foul. They spread the floor and were moving the ball around when suddenly senior Megan Quam was trapped and was looking to throw the ball to a teammate with 18 seconds to go and a five-second call was whistled.

The Komets went down the floor and threw up a shot and missed. In the battle for the rebound it got knocked out of bounds. The Komets tossed the ball in and it was deflected. Cori Kennedy gained control, shot with 10 seconds to go and scored to give the Komets a 56-55 lead.

After a time out, K-W had 8.5 seconds to inbound the ball and go the length of the floor. Very doable, but Mara Quam was forced into a nearly half-court shot after bringing the ball up the sideline, and the Komets were overall HVL champs.

Seniors Cori Kennedy had 19 points, Taylor Wiebke tallied 13 and Taylor Miller had nine for K-M. The Knights were led by sophomore Mara Quam's 24; senior Brittany Flom collected 13.

The Launching Pad was filled to the rafters and all got their money's worth. Kasson-Mantorville finished the season unbeaten in HVL play. Komet head coach Ryan Heraldson told KDHL after the game that it was a terrific tuneup for the playoffs, which begin next week.

Kasson-Mantorville should be a top seed in the Section 1 Class AAA playoffs and Kenyon-Wanamingo will be the No. 2 seed in the west subsection of Section 1 Class AA. The Knights will probably play Cannon Falls and the Komets either Stewartville or Albert Lea in their first playoff games.

Class AAA begins Wednesday night and Class AA on Thursday night.