Women’s College Basketball: Raiders hoping for an offensive explosion

THEIF RIVER FALLS — Igniting the offense will be the biggest key for the Central Lakes College Raiders this weekend.

CLC will begin postseason play with a 13-10 overall record and the North No. 2 seed in the Region 13A Tournament. The Raiders open against South No. 3-seeded Anoka-Ramsey 6 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls.

“We need to produce on offense,” CLC head coach Krystal Brodeen said. “That’s been our struggle throughout this month. We have great defenders and the girls have gotten closer so defense is no issue. We kept Northland to 54 points (Saturday, Feb. 22), which is the lowest that they had all season. That’s a team that normally averages 80 points and we kept them down to 50, but we struggled to score ourselves.

“If we can work on that this week and the girls get more confident at taking it to the basket then I think we’ll be OK.”

CLC averages 56.1 points per game while allowing 55.6 per contest. Constance Bowstring leads the Raiders with 10.4 points per game. Chesney Phillipp averages 10.1 points,11.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks followed by Cate Travis at 7.7 points and Reese Hartl at 6.4 points.

“We have two great bigs in Chesney and Alyssa (Wright) on the inside,” Brodeen said. “It’s just getting them good looks and then having our freshmen guards be able to have that confidence to shoot when they do have that open look. Anoka has really good talented bigs as well so it might be a battle of the bigs on Saturday. That will be the test for our guards to show up, too. We’ll need somebody to step up and produce on the perimeter.”

While the offense isn’t the Raiders’ strength, rebounding and defense is. CLC outrebounds opponents 40.9 to 36.3. Teams turn the ball over 18.7 times against the Raiders and shoot just 33.4% from the field.

Wright accounts for 6.7 rebounds per game. Hartl grabs 4.3 and Bowstring 4.0. Bowstring leads the team with 2.2 steals per game. Travis leads the team with 2.3 assists followed by Hartl’s 2.0.

The Rams are 16-9 overall and finished 6-4 in the South. They finished February 3-2 with the losses going to Minnesota West and Rochester. Minnesota West is the No. 1 seed in Region 13A, while Rochester is the South No. 2 seed in the Region 13B tournament.

A-R defeated CLC 59-42 Nov. 13 and again 64-46 Nov. 19 in Brainerd.

“We lost twice in November, but we were definitely a different team back then,” Brodeen said. “I think they kind of stayed the same.”

The Rams are led by Mariam Alowonie, a 6-foot, freshman from Park Center, who averages 14.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Sydney Hazuga, a sophomore guard from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, averages 14.2 points per game. Bella Kanz, a 6-foot sophomore from Maple Grove, averages 9.7 points and 7.2 rebounds and O’Ciana Johnson, a 6-foot freshman from Burnsville, punches in at 7.5 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

“I think we have the nicer bracket,” Brodeen said. “If we win then we’ll play the winner of Minnesota West and whoever comes out of the play-in game on Friday between Ridgewater and Vermilion. With the play-in game on Friday, that will make things interesting. It will be interesting to see the regional tournament different. It’s very different now that we’re split from the men’s tournament. I’m excited to see how it turns out. Typically, the MCAC Regionals send four teams to nationals so this is the best of the best. It will be a good experience for the team and the big freshmen class I have to hopefully return and do it again.”

JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at 218-855-5856 or jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com. Follow on Twitter at

www.twitter.com/jeremymillsop

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What: Region 13A Semifinals

Who: North No. 2 Central Lakes College vs. South No. 3 Anoka-Ramsey

When: 6 p.m. Saturday, March 1

Where: Northland Community and Technical College, Thief River Falls

Next: Region 13A Championship 2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 2

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