With the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams coming away from their respective openers with an entirely different mindset, Pipestone Area fans were left guessing as to how the Arrows would perform against the Redwood Valley Cardinals during Friday night’s home doubleheader.
The Arrow girls had no difficulty in throttling the visiting Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots, 73-31, in their opener Dec. 1, but the boys struggled with the Patriots in their first tilt of the season, Dec. 4, giving an uninspired effort in a 67-48 loss.
The Arrow girls didn’t rest on their laurels and the boys did a complete 180-degree turn Friday night as Pipestone Area claimed both games of the doubleheader. The Pipestone Area girls built on their 7-point halftime lead to beat the Cardinals, 63-39, while the PAS boys handled the Cardinals, 47-38, to earn their first victory of the season.

GIRLS
Despite the usual discrepancy in talent, the Cardinals have traditionally given the Arrows a tough game, and Friday night was no exception – at least in the first half.
“We haven’t played Redwood very well in the past,” Pipestone Area head coach Jay Johnson said. “We expected them to come in and give us some problems, and they did in that first half. It was a lot better in the second half, and we were able to focus on, and emphasize, our strengths after the break.”
Two of those strengths are a stingy defense and a patient inside/outside offensive game, and the Arrows worked them to perfection over the final 18 minutes to claim a 24-point victory.
Despite the end product, however, the Arrows didn’t have the offensive spark they later used to pull away from the Cardinals in the first half of play. In fact, PAS trailed RV, 14-13, midway though the opening period. It took some creative passing and good vision from senior Taylor Swenson (four points, six assists) and the energy of senior Jeena Lentz (11 points, five rebounds) to turn the tide.
Swenson posted four of her assists in the later stages of the first half and Lentz scored seven of her total points in the final four minutes of the opening period.
“Once we started hitting a few shots from the perimeter, they came out to guard us more and the posts opened up,” Swenson said. “From there, it just kind of happened. Most of the time Rachel (Tinklenberg) is calling for the ball, but ‘House’ (Breanna Houselog) and I have an unspoken communication.
“I thought Jeena played very well. I was very proud to have her as my teammate tonight.”
The Cardinals took advantage of the Arrows’ poor outside shooting in the first half and found ways to hit the hoop from the outside. RV junior Jessica Fisher (game-high 19 points) and sophomore Sam Felt (12 points) combined for all but four of the Cardinals first-half points and kept the visitors within striking distance at the intermission (28-21).
RV sophomore guard Liz Smith opened the second-half scoring, but her short jumper was two of the Cardinals scant eight points over the first 10 minutes of the final period.
The Arrows, paced by Bree Woelber (12 points, four rebounds) and Bailey Bouman (11 points, four assists, four rebounds, three steals), ripped off a 27-8 run to claim a 55-29 lead with 7:37 to play. Woelber and Bouman dished off to each other on several occasions for easy points inside. Bouman also found the range from the perimeter, canning back-to-back treys with 10 minutes to go.
When Woelber and Bouman were cut off on the outside, Swenson and Bouman slipped sharp passes into Houselog (11 points, seven rebounds) and Tinklenberg (10 points, six rebounds).
“They did a really good job of finding the opposite post against the zone,” Houselog said of Swenson and Bouman. “We knew they (RV) were going to run a zone defense tonight, so we practiced getting the ball into the posts against our B- squad and the boys’ B-squad.”
Not only were the Arrow posts finding success offensively, but they also shut down the Cardinals’ attempts at getting inside. The Arrows controlled the boards all evening, using their height and length to their advantage.
“Our size is a factor and, once again, they did a good job with it,” Johnson said. “Rebounding is another key and will be throughout the season with this team. We did a great job of controlling the glass. Jeena and Rachel gave us a spark on both ends of the floor, and Taylor was very strong defensively. Again, those will be key components during the season; kids that might not be superstars individually just play great together. We’ll see how those combinations develop during the year.”

RV 21 18 – 39
PAS 28 35 – 63

BOYS
In dramatic contrast to their opener Dec. 3, the Arrow boys rectified several deficiencies in their game against the Cardinals Friday night. Not only did the Arrows (2-1) shoot the ball better, but they also broke the press with ease, demonstrated greater offensive patience and stopped dribble-drive penetration better on the defensive end of the court.
“Overall, I thought we played a much better game, and we were able to put them away at the end,” PAS head coach Ed Gustafson said after the game. “After we got going in that first half, the basket really started opening up for us. We got into some early foul trouble again, but our seniors stepped up and kept us focused.”
Foul trouble was key in the Arrows’ opening night loss to the Hills-Beaver Creek Patriots, and that’s one thing that didn’t change with a week of practice. Senior center Eric Stark, for the second game in a row, found himself on the bench after just two-and-a-half minutes, forcing seniors Shandon Jones (23 points, 12 rebounds) and Tate Van Roekel (eight points, five rebounds, four assists) to grab the reins. Both upper classmen did a terrific job keeping the Arrows settled and patient.
“When you lose a big scorer and rebounder like Eric, you have to pull together and pick up the slack,” Van Roekel said. “It’s not just the scoring you miss, it’s the rebounding, too, and we really worked on rebounding better as a group this week in practice.”
Following Stark’s early exit after knocking down the Arrows’ first two shots of the night, Jones took charge. In a span of seven minutes, the senior lit up the scoreboard – hitting five consecutive shots for the hosts and draining a pair of free throws to help the Arrows forge a 15-6 lead.
After 1-of-2 from the charity stripe by Jason Nettik, Van Roekel found the range from beyond the arc. His trey was followed by a putback effort from Jones, and the Arrows were well on their way to claiming their first victory.
“Fortunately for us, they (RV) don’t have too many tall players, so when Eric went out, we were able to make up for it with me, Michael (Merrill) and Mark Abrahamson and Tyler (Rieck) down low,” Jones said. “Tate did a good job of not rushing us offensively, and I think that helped us get into a better offensive rhythm.”
After Jones put the Arrows up 21-6 with his putback, the Cardinals took advantage of Pipestone Area’s foul trouble and went to the line on six consecutive possessions. Hitting 10-of-11 from the charity stripe helped the visitors climb back into contention. Trailing by only seven as intermission neared, the Cardinals hoped to pull closer and made it a 6-point game with two free throws by Cole Huhnerkoch. Unfortunately for RV, however, Jones canned his second trey of the half to give the Arrows a 27-18 lead at the break.
Back in the lineup to open the second half, Stark immediately made his presence known with a strong move to the hoop. Fouled on the bucket, the six-foot, seven-inch senior completed the 3-point to increase the Arrow advantage. Jones followed with an end-to-end effort after stealing the ball from Huhnerkoch, and the Arrows had a 32-18 lead just two minutes into the final period.
“I thought Shandon played a really nice game for us tonight,” Gustafson said. “He was strong both offensively and defensively. He has the ability to play like that every night, and we need him to be a big part of everything we do.”
Michael Busack and J.T. Radel were the only Redwood Valley players to score for the Cardinals in the second half. Each found the mark from beyond the arc during the half, but the Arrows easily countered their efforts. Jones continued his hot hand and Rieck (four rebounds) drained a trey from the top of the key.
Five late points by Busack was the only reason the Arrows didn’t claim a double-digit victory, as his final shot was good for three.
“We probably didn’t prepare properly for that first game, but I thought we did a much better job of that tonight,” Gustafson said. “We still have a lot of things to work on, but this should help us build some confidence for our game tomorrow night.”

RV 18 20 – 38
Pipestone Area 27 20 – 47

Tuesday
Girls
Pipestone Area 65, Luverne 27
Pipestone Area improved to 3-0 on the youg season with a lopsided victory over Southwest Conference for Luverne Tuesday night in Luverne.
The game was a make-up from Dec. 8, but the Cardinals (0-5) would likely have cancelled it all together as the hosts had a scant 11 points at intermission.
“We did a good job of controlling the ball and running our offense,” Pipestone Area head coach Jay Johnson said after the tilt. “We wanted to continue to work on being patient with our offense, and the girls did a good job of that.”
PAS senior guard Bailey Bouman topped all scorers on the night, finishing with 19 points, three rebounds and a steal.
Bree Woelber totaled 16 markers for the Arrows and added four rebounds, five assists and four steals, while Brooke Woelber knocked down 10 points to go along with three boards, two assists, a block and two steals.
Arrow senior post Rachel Tinklenberg added eight points and five rebounds.
The Arrows will try to make it four in a row when they tipoff against the Windom Eagles Friday night in Pipestone.

Pipestone Area 41 24 – 65
Luverne 11 16 – 27