Girls’ basketball pulls off 74-40 win
Team moves ahead in Sections
Senior and captain Jordyn Turek looks for a team member to pass the ball to. Park won its first Sections game 74-40 against Southwest Feb. 26.
February 28, 2020
Keeping a strong lead ahead of Minneapolis Southwest for the majority of its first Section game, senior captain Jordyn Turek said the team was able to play more of the roster which prepared the team for its next Section game.
“This team wasn’t a very strong team,” Turek said. “So our goal was to kind of play everyone and then if we get a lead, to get everybody in since JV doesn’t play anymore.”
Coach Arsenio Richardson said he was confident the team would come out with a win after being able to hold Southwest at 40 points. However, Southwest still persevered against Park despite having a younger roster.
“Overall the defense was there. We held them to 40 — if you can hold a team to 40, you’ve got a chance to win,” Richardson said. “They are a young ballclub though, they’ve got a heck of a coach — they fought hard.”
Throughout the season and with its first Section win, Richardson said Park’s diverse roster has been their advantage and main source of success this season, especially in the Southwest game.
“We’ve got a couple seniors that have been playing varsity since eighth grade. Then we’ve got like nine juniors and then our sophomores and freshmen and eighth-graders. They play a lot of basketball,” Richardson said. “We have some height, which we want to take advantage of, but we’ve got some upperclassmen that put in a lot here.”
With the Wayzata game up next on the Sections schedule for Park, Turek said the team has to go into their games against difficult opponents with the mindset they’ve been preparing all season.
“We have Wayzata on Saturday, and we haven’t played them for years. So we’re looking forward to that, beating them and then going up against Hopkins,” Turek said. “We’ve been preparing for it for the whole season. As a team, just continuing to get better and we’ve done a lot of hard work this whole season and so really ready to apply that to the game.”
Junior Izzy Segal said in order for Park to advance in Sections, the team has to give each game its best effort. Wayzata is ranked number two in the state and if Park comes out with a win, they will continue on to play Hopkins, the number one seed in the state.
“Everyone has to play basically perfectly and just be completely locked in to the game and focused and doing their job 100 percent with effort,” Segal said.
Despite Wayzata’s high ranking in the state, Richardson said he would like to see the team step up and push through.
“I like our odds. I like the matchup, so hopefully we can come out and we can battle and we give ourselves a chance,” Richardson said.
Park will play Wayzata 7 p.m. Feb. 29 at Hopkins High School.
