PERHAM – After a historic 2022-23 campaign, the Perham girls basketball team was showered with several postseason accolades to cap off an amazing season.
The Yellowjackets finished the season with a record of 27-5, which set a new program best for wins in a season. Perham was crowned champion of the Heart of Lakes Conference for the second consecutive year with a perfect 19-0 record.
The Yellowjackets were also untouched in section play, finishing 12-0. Over the past two seasons, the Yellowjackets are 36-3 against section opponents. Perham finished as section 8AA champions after a victory over No. 11 Wadena-Deer Creek in the section finals.
Perham punched its ticket to the state tournament for the first time since 1991. At state, Perham lost to No. 3 Albany in the quarterfinals, defeated Crosby Ironton in the consolation semifinals and lost to New London-Spicer in the consolation championship.
Junior Willow Thiel was named the HOL Conference's most valuable player and earned All-State honorable mention. She averaged 20.8 points per game and 10.8 rebounds per game. Thiel has scored the third most points in program history with 1,394 points.
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She was also named to the HOL All-Conference team with senior teammates Mya Morris and Olivia Pilgrim. Morris averaged 13.3 points per game and hit 46.5% from beyond the arc. She set a school record for 3-pointers in a season.
Pilgrim ended the season averaging 5.8 points per game, a team-high 3.2 assists per game and 1.1 steals per game.
Senior Olivia Rosenthal, junior Kennedy Pilgrim and freshman Kaia Anderson were all given a HOL Conference honorable mention.
As student-athletes, performance in the classroom comes first. Senior Lily Aakre, Olivia Pilgrim Morris, and Rosenthal earned Academic All-State Honors.
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