Battle Lake Girls Knock Off Top Ranked Panthers
by Craig Olson
The Battle Lake girls basketball team pulled off a huge upset in high school girls basketball when they beat the top-ranked, unbeaten Parkers Prairie Panthers 54-53 in Battle Lake on Friday night.
The game was tied 24-24 at the half. With seven seconds left on the clock, Carley Nelson made a pair of free throws to put the Battlers up by one point. Lindsay Nelson then drew a charge with just one-tenth of a second remaining to end it.
"The score stayed very close the whole way tonight," stated head coach David Marso of the lady Battlers. "Our girls really worked hard defensively and played with a lot of energy. Both teams really gave a tremendous effort tonight and we were fortunate to get this win."
Carley Nelson came up big again for Battle Lake, scoring 13 points in each half as she attacked the Parkers Prairie defense on the drive. She also converted all seven of her free throw opportunities, finishing with a game high 26 points. Lindsay Nelson added 10 points and Kim Seidel pulled down 8 rebounds and nailed 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch. As a team the Battlers hit 41% of their field goal attempts and went 14-for-19 on the foul line.
Parkers Praire (11-1) was led by Sari Noga with 17 points and Madison Dorn with 14 points.
The win was the fourth in a row for Battle Lake and puts them at 6-4 on the season. They are now tied with the Panthers for the Little Eight Conference lead with a record of 4-1. Battle Lake will travel to Evansville on Tuesday night to face the Brandon/Evansville Chargers.
**A second story can be found here at the Fergus Falls Journal: http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2010/jan/16/battlers-stun-panthers/