Blooming Prairie girls’ basketball holds off late charge by Hayfield to win 52-47

Bobbie Bruns, who led the Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms girls’ basketball team in steals with 62 coming into their game Thursday night at home against Hayfield came up with two crucial ones in the last minute of the game, plus she converted the first steal into a basket and a made free throw after a foul to help propel the Blossoms to a 52-47 win.

Blooming Prairie never trailed in the game as they jumped out to a 12-3 lead and led by as many as 13 in the first half, plus they forced 13 turnovers in the half and led 36-28 at the break.  The second half turned into a defensive battle as the Blossoms turned the ball over only four times in the first half, but nine times in the second half and Hayfield kept whittling down the lead to as few as two points at 49-47 entering the final minute.  Bruns, though, stepped to the fore for the Blossoms as a steal keyed a three-point play to give Bruns 12 points on the night and a 52-47 lead.  Bruns wasn’t finshed, as after her made free throw, she came up with another steal for the Vikings’ 12th turnover of the half that help seal the win for BP.

Megan Oswald led the Blossoms in scoring Thursday night with 16 points, Maggie Bruns drilled three 3-pointers in the first half on the way to 10 points and Julia Worke also added 10 points in the win for Blooming Prairie.   For Hayfield, Cela Carney led three Vikings in double figures with 13 points, while Kristen Watson and Rachel Pack each added 10 points.  Lila Gronseth chipped in eight points and Taylor Burt added four for Hayfield, who fell to 3-9 in the Gopher Conference and 11-11 overall with the loss.  With the win, Blooming Prairie kept pace with Waterville/Elysian/Morristown atop the conference at 10-2, and they are now 18-3 overall.  The Blossoms are back into action next Tuesday against the Buccaneers, while the Vikings will host Triton for a Saturday night game at 6:00 p.m.