Hot shooting helps Kernel girls surge past Sioux Falls Lincoln for fifth-straight win
Kernels are now 6-6 this season after losing six of its first seven games of the year.
Mitchell's Taylor Giblin makes a 3-pointer over a Sioux Falls Lincoln defender during the first half of a girls basketball contest on Friday, January 28, 2022 in Sioux Falls.
SIOUX FALLS – The Mitchell High School girls basketball team made eight 3-pointers to roll to a 55-33 win over Sioux Falls Lincoln on Friday night, winning by their largest margin of the season.
Three players finished with double-digit scoring for the Kernels, including the leading scorer who shot 4-of-8 from behind the arc, in Sarah Sebert. Sebert finished with 14 points and three rebounds. Freshman Lauren Van Overschelde and junior Taylor Giblin made two 3-pointers each as Van Overschelde finished with 12 points and Giblin finished with eight points. Sawyer Stoebner had another all-around game of 12 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals.
The win continues a strong run of play for the Kernels, who have won five straight games after started the season 1-6 and have now beaten two Metro Athletic Conference teams in a row that that were above them in the Class AA standings.
“We’re just playing good team basketball and we’re shooting a lot of the good threes,” Mitchell head coach Cole Knippling said. “We’re really sharing the ball and we’re taking the good ones. We’re not shooting contested ones because of how we move the ball. … When you have three girls shooting confidently around Sawyer’s driving and Kaitlyn (Christensen's) post play, it makes us hard to guard.”
In Mitchell’s fifth straight game holding an opponent to under 42 points, they started and ended the night setting the tone defensively. The Kernels had three steals in the first quarter that led to easy layups by Stoebner, Van Overschelde and 6-foot forward Kaitlyn Chistensen. Sioux Falls Lincoln shot 1-of-4 from three in the first quarter to help Mitchell get out to a 13-7 lead.
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Lincoln started off the second quarter on a 5-0 run to cut the lead back to one. The Patriots used a full-court press the entire second half, forcing the Kernels to go 0-3 from the field and commit three turnovers. Mitchell gathered themselves after a Sebert 3-pointer with a little under five minutes to go in the second. Mitchell ended the quarter on a 11-4 run that included two 3-pointers by Sebert and five points by Giblin.
1/56: Action from the Mitchell Kernels against Sioux Falls Lincoln during a game on Friday, January 28, 2022 in Sioux Falls.
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Coming out of halftime, the Kernels were hot from outside. After Van Overschelde was fouled on her 3-point attempt and made two of her three free throws, she came back down the court and canned a 3-pointer from the right wing. Sebert followed her up making back-to-back threes and extended the lead to 13.
“It seems like we all have just been having our games, but today was the first game where everyone had a good game,” Sebert said. “Everyone played together and we had a conversation as a team about our turnover-to-assist ratio and we’ve been working on getting our assist percentage back where it should and we did a really good job of doing that tonight.”
Mitchell's Sarah Sebert knocks down a 3-pointer over Sioux Falls Lincoln's Mariah Siem during the first half of a girls basketball contest on Friday, January 28, 2022 in Sioux Falls.
Matt Gade/Mitchell Republic
At the start of the fourth, Sioux Falls Lincoln made two quick layups as they tried to get the score within single digits, but the Kernels did not let up. After patiently moving the ball offensively, Christensen got two open layups at the rim and Mitchell cruised to a 22-point victory.
Mariah Siem led the Patriots with 12 points and Kierra Lubovich added nine points. Points didn’t come easy for Sioux Falls Lincoln (6-6), as they were held to seven points in the first quarter as well as seven points in the fourth quarter. As a team, Mitchell had 13 assists on 49 percent shooting from the field, and also had five steals.
The Kernels will look to win their sixth straight as they travel to Sioux Falls Jefferson on Feb. 1.
Branden is a sports reporter that graduated from Purdue University Northwest with a bachelor's degree in communications and a focus in journalism. He joined the Mitchell Republic in June 2021 and covers prep and collegiate athletics. He was also the lead on the Mitchell Republic Full-Court Press, providing a weekly web-exclusive look at high school basketball throughout all of South Dakota. Branden can be reached at bhull@mitchellrepublic.com and found on Twitter at @bhullreports.
