Scott and Quam Put on a Show in Kenyon
Mara Quam was incredible in the first half for Kenyon-Wanamingo and Kristen Scott took over the second half for Kasson-Mantorville in a 55-50 Komet win in the Castle on Monday night.
The Knights played about as perfect a half as they could against the No. 3 Class 3A ranked Komets to take a 26-21 first-half lead.
Kenyon-Wanamingo's pressure did get some turnovers in the first half and so did their 2-3 zone.
They really collapsed on Scott and held the 6-foot-2 senior to 12 first-half points while Mara Quam collected 19 and Savannah Blees scored the other seven for Kenyon-Wanamingo.
Kasson-Mantorville had just three players score in the first half.
In addition to Scott's 12, 5-foot-3 senior Mikayla Grant had five first-half points and 6-foot-1 sophomore Payton Seuss added four.
The Knights converted all six Komet turnovers into 12 points in the first half and led every tick tock of the clock.
Kasson-Mantorville made some adjustments at halftime to turn things around and with 11:30 to go in the game they got their first lead.
The Komets would eventually have a 12-point lead, but Kenyon-Wanamingo never said die in the game and Knights head coach Brent Lurken said he was proud of the fight his team showed against a very good team.
Kasson-Mantorville head coach Ryan Haraldson knew it wouldn't be easy, telling KDHL before the game that his team needed to keep Quam off the free throw line, where she is nearly automatic. Quam was 4 for 4 from the charity stripe and Scott was 6 of 8.
Scott finished with 36 points and Quam had 33.
The first few minutes of the second half, Quam did not get many touches while Kasson-Mantorville made it a point to get Scott the ball deep, where she is virtually unstoppable.
Kenyon-Wanamingo finished the game with 19 points off turnovers and Kasson-Mantorville had eight.
The Komets won their ninth straight game, going 7 for 10 from the free throw line, and are now 9-3 on the season.
Kenyon-Wanamingo dropped to 5-5 with the loss and dropped their fourth straight, three of them to state-ranked teams. They fell to Hayfield by five, Goodhue by four, Kasson-Mantorville by five points and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva by 29.
In addition to Scott's 36 points, Grant reached double figures with 10 for the Komets.
Our Held Bus Service of Kenyon Knights of the game were Quam, Savannah Blees with 10 points and Megan Flom.
Flom had just three points on a triple on the first possession of the second half to put the Knights up by eight at the time.
The reason we chose her was her defensive fronting of Scott to deny her touches in the post, but Scott moved quicker in the second half to get open and used her strength to get positioning inside.
Kenyon-Wanamingo travels to Triton on Tuesday while Kasson-Mantorville goes to Pine Island.