The Becker Lady Bulldogs lost to the Zimmerman Thunder 75-69 Tuesday night at home in an important Section 5AAA contest.  

 

Naomi Haegstrom and Makayla Pool each scored 17 points, and Alyssa Daugherty added 16 points in the win.  

 

“Daugherty did a great job letting the game come to her,” said Becker Head Coach Dan Baird.  “She got her teammates involved in the first half and then kind of took over in the second despite Alayna Lindquist's excellent defense.  Daugherty is an excellent all around player.”  

 

Zimmerman hit some key shots in the contest and answered runs throughout the game after falling behind 13-3 to start the game.  From that point, the Thunder really played well. 

 

Becker was led in scoring by Julia Bengtson's 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting.

 

“Jules played really well and is improving significantly with her decision making and has reduced her turnovers this season by over two a game,” said Baird.  

 

Bengtson added eight rebounds, three assists and three steals and was relentless at attacking the Zimmerman defense.  

 

Megan Gamble continued her excellent play, adding 10 points and five rebounds.  

 

“Megan is doing an excellent job getting offensive rebounds for the Lady Bulldogs,” said Baird.  “A major advantage in this game was the foul count.  Becker had 27 fouls in the game to Zimmerman's 17.”  

 

Baird said this allowed the Thunder to capitalize on 28 foul shots to Becker's 16.  

 

“We need to be able to play better defense without fouling,” he said.  “This gave them way too many easy points on silly reaching fouls because we didn't do a great job sliding our feet.”

 

Baird was impressed though with how his team out-rebounded Zimmerman 45-38, which was one of his goals for the game.  

 

“The fouls negated this advantage unfortunately,” he said.  

 

Halftime showed Becker behind by three at 34-31, while the Thunder tallied 41 points to Becker’s 38 in the second half to pull away.

 

Becker fell to 8-9 overall and 5-3 in the Granite Ridge Conference.  Zimmerman improved to 10-6 and 6-1 in the Granite Ridge.  

 

Becker scoring: Bengtson 23, Lexi Masog 12, Gamble 10, Courtney Nuest 10, Lindquist 7, Haley Benda 5 and Madi Kerzman 2.

 

Zimmerman scoring: Haegstrom 17, Pool 17, Daugherty 16, Ilea May 11, Katie Jacob 9 and Olivia Williams 5.

 

Becker takes on Albany Friday and Rocori Saturday on the road.