The Wadena-Deer Creek girls basketball team traveled to Perham on Friday night to take on a tough Perham Yellowjackets team. The Wolverines had a tough time finding the basket and finding an answer for Perham sophomore Willow Thiel.
Perham rolled to a 54-28 win over WDC. Thiel's 30 points led all scorers in the win. However the Wolverines hung tough in the opening minutes. Freshman Addyson Gravelle converted a hard-fought three-point play to give the Wolverines a short-lived 7-5 lead.
It didn't take long for Thiel and Perham senior Sydney Anderson, who just came off scoring her 1000th point on Tuesday, to put the Yellowjackets in front. Perham took a 24-13 lead into the locker room behind Thiel's 13 first-half points and Anderson had five. Gravelle led the Wolverines with five points in the first half.
The second half was a similar story. Wadena gained a little momentum after starting the half off with back-to-back three-pointers from senior Lauryn Gravelle and freshman Montana Carsten.
Thiel answered with six quick points as part of a 17-point second-half tear that would prove to be too much for the Wolverines to handle.
“It got tough out there tonight, Thiel is strong,” WDC head coach Jordan Cresap said. “We were trying to take her away but that was leaving us with no backside help. We battled hard, but we had some serious lapses in the second half that we need to clean up. We had a hard time hitting our shots tonight. Got to give credit to Perham.”
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Along with Thiel's 30 points, Anderson finished with 11. Junior Olivia Pilgrim also had five points for Perham.
Lauryn Gravelle led the Wolverines with seven points on the night. Montana Carsten had six points and Addyson Gravelle had five points for Wadena.
The Yellowjackets will travel to face off against East Grand Forks on Monday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m. for their next match up. The Wolverines next game will be against Bertha-Hewitt in Wadena on Monday, Jan. 31 at 7:30 p.m.
