Blooming Prairie girls’ basketball falls to Hayfield 40-38

The two top teams in the East Division of the Gopher Conference in girls’ basketball squared off in Blooming Prairie Tuesday evening as the Awesome Blossoms, who came in winners of five in a row and six out of their last seven games entertained the unbeaten and No. 4 ranked in Class A Hayfield Vikings, and a put-back field goal by Hayfield’s Natalie Beaver with :15 to go proved to be the difference in a 40-38 Viking win.

The Blossoms led by one at the half at 22-21 and led by six with three minutes to go, but they were not able to hold the lead down the stretch.  Coach John Bruns stated that his club did a great job in handling Hayfield’s pressure, and he added that the Blossoms also played strong defense the entire game and made the Vikings work for every point.  A key stat that went heavily the way of Hayfield Tuesday evening was free-throw shooting, as the Vikings 15 for 22 at the charity stripe while the Blossoms were only 2 for 10.

Bobbie Bruns led BP offensivley with 15 points, plus she added five assists, Shawntee Snyder tallied eight points and added a team-high 12 rebounds, Macy Lembke chipped in five points, Haven Carlson and Anna Pauly each scored four points, with Carlson also adding four blocked shots and Addison Doocy tallied two points for the Blossoms, who are now 6-3 in the conference and 10-6 overall.  Kristen Watson scored a game-high 19 points for Hayfield, while Natalie Beaver tallied 14 points for the Vikings, who are now 18-0 on the season and 9-0 in the conference.

Blooming Prairie will wrap up a three-game homestand Thursday night as they play host to Maple River, with the varsity tip-off at 7:15 p.m.