The evidence is in and it’s been declared official: the Becker girls basketball team is on a roll. With three wins racked up over the past week, including their 50th straight Mississippi 8 Conference win, Coach Dan Baird and his team are starting to gel with just three weeks left in the regular season.

“Our team is playing really well right now,” Baird said after the last of the three wins. “I hope we can sustain this as we approach the end of the season.”

The recent hot streak started last Thursday against Monticello, as the team picked up its 50th consecutive victory over a conference opponent with a 76-45 win over the Magic.

Baird said his team didn’t play their best game, yet the outcome was never in doubt as the Bulldogs raced to a 41-21 halftime lead.

“We did have only 11 turnovers, as anything under 12 is ideal,” Baird said. “We hit 11 threes, and anything over 10 is good.  We also didn’t foul much, nine, which is below our goal of 13. We won this game but didn’t play our best – we just weren’t very crisp.”

Defensively, Baird had his team on the move, as they picked up 17 steals to the Magic’s six.

“Lexi Rose had a nice game, with 14 points on 6-for-11 shooting, six rebounds, three assists, and zero turnovers,” Baird said.  “Addy Kent led our team in scoring with 17, to go along with six rebounds.”

Scoring: Dani Nuest, 15; Maren Westin, 12; Hannah Dierkes, three; Ayla Brown, 11; Adeline Kent, 17 (six rebounds); Alexa Voller, two; Alexis Rose 14; Liz Mackedanz, two (seven rebounds).

Community Clash

Last Saturday, the Bulldogs traveled to STMA to participate in the Breakdown’s Community Clash, and came away with a stellar performance against the Waconia Wildcats, winning 88-47.

“We played a great game against a quality opponent,” Baird said.  “We had only nine turnovers and our defense was stifling in half court man! We had four girls score over 17 points, so that is hard to defend!”

Becker’s speed was just too much for Waconia, as Becker posted 50 points in the second half as they wore down their opponent.

The Bulldogs held a 27-2 advantage in transition points, while also scoring 32 points off 23 Waconia turnovers. The Bulldogs were also on target, shooting over 49% from the field in the game.

Becker Scoring: Nuest, 21; Westin, 17; Dierkes, two; Brown, 19 (seven assists); Kent, 17; Voller, three; Rose, nine.

Roseville

Monday night, it was another road contest against a Class AAAA school as the Bulldogs traveled to pick up a 76-60 win over the Roseville Raiders.

The Raiders came into the game with a high ranking and a great deal of experience against some of the top teams in the state, but Baird said his crew was up for the challenge.

“It was a great game for us against a team with 165 QRF compared to our 131,” Baird said, referring to the Quality Results Formula, which ranks teams according to their record while taking into account strength of schedule.  “Even though Roseville is a nice defensive team, our girls consistently scored throughout the game even when we were struggling to stop them. In short, we never had a drought.”

Becker was on fire from three point range, hitting 10 of 20 shots from deep, while holding the Raiders to a 6-for-32 performance from beyond the arc.

Once again, the Bulldogs were able to make the halftime adjustments needed to extend their lead in the second half.

“We struggled early with post defense and dribble penetration, but did well adjusting to this and defended well in the second half,” Baird said. “Our offense was relentless at attacking the basket and sharing the basketball. Maren Westin scored 20 points to go with 12 rebounds, and this rebounding really sparked the team in the second half.”

With the win, Becker moved to 14-3 on the season and Baird expects his team to regain the #1 ranking in Class AAA.

Becker scoring: Nuest, 15 (six assists); Westin, 20 (12 rebounds); Brown, nine; Kent, 14; Rose, 16; Mackedanz, two.