The 2021-22 Mount Vernon varsity girls basketball season has drawn to a close.
The Mustangs lost to the Roland-Story Norsemen 40-29, closing out what had begun to be a bit of a fairy tale season, under the direction of first year Mount Vernon head coach Nate Sanderson.
The Wednesday, Feb. 16 game, the team’s first regional semifinal appearance since 2018, was played in Story City, against a 17-5 Roland-Story team with an exceptional player in Reagan Barkema. Sanderson called Barkema, who has committed to play at Bradley University, “the best player in the gym.”
“Going into the game, Roland-Story presented a number of challenges,” Sanderson said.
“Their full court press gave us fits early in the game, before we were able to settle ourselves down and adjust to the pressure,” said the coach.
Barkema, he added, “lived up to her billing as a division-one player, scoring 16 of Roland-Story’s first 19 points in the game. Again, we adjusted to hold her to just five points in the second half, but the damage had been done.”
After finding themselves in a 14-0 hole in the first quarter, Liz Dougherty scored a driving layup to finally put the Mustangs on the board.
Late in the third quarter, the team strung together four consecutive baskets, cutting the Norsemen lead to 27-23. This was as close as they would come.
At the end of the night, we shot 11-39 in the paint, which we simply could not overcome,” said Sanderson.
“We played well enough defensively to have a chance. We created some great opportunities to score at the rim. We just didn’t finish.”
“Regardless of the outcome, it was a great experience this year,” Sanderson said.
The loss cemented the Mustangs record at 12-11, the first winning record for the team since the 2017-18 season.
MV girls basketball season ends
February 24, 2022
–Contributed photos by Kevin Patterson
Mount Vernon’s McKenzie Rentschler looks to pass the ball to a teammate at play at Roland Story.
