DETROIT LAKES – There are firsts for every team, and for the Perham girls basketball team, it will make its first state tournament appearance under the leadership of head coach TJ Super after defeating No. 11 Wadena-Deer Creek in the Section 8AA finals on Friday night.
In Super’s first appearance in the section finals, Perham punched its ticket to state after shutting down the streaking Wolverines 58-44. For the first time since 1991, the Yellowjackets will take their talents to the Twin Cities to compete against the best the state has to offer.
“I am just super excited and excited for the girls,” Super said with a big smile on his face. “They have put in so much work over the years. It is great to see the support from ex-players, the community, the student section, Perham families and the Yellowjacket faithful. You can tell that everyone is having a great time and you can feel the love. It feels so great.”
“We were just all so glad,” senior guard Mya Morris said. “It has been a dream of ours since the summer. We have been working our butts off at practice all season long. It was our hard work that helped us do what we could do today.”
Four minutes into the game, Perham jumped out to a 7-2 lead. WDC fought back to make it a one-possession game, but an Olivia Rosenthal free throw would spark an 8-0 run. Perham went up 21-11 with just under seven minutes left in the first half.
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Perham went on outscore the Wolverines 21-13 and went into the locker with a 42-24 lead.
In the first seven minutes of the second half, the Yellowjackets stayed ahead up 48-31. Then WDC began to mount a comeback, scoring 10 unanswered points and cutting the Perham lead to single digits . Now down 48-41, the Wolverines’ magic ran out. Perham finished the game on an 11-3 run to secure their spot in the state tournament.
“We focused more on defense.” Perham’s Kennedy Pilgrim said about how the Yellowjackets shut down the WDC second-half comeback. “We got too relaxed with the big lead and realized that we can’t do that. We locked things down and didn’t allow them any easy trips to the hoop or the paint.”
WDC head coach Jordan Cresap had high praises for the Perham squad that kept his team on their toes throughout the whole game.
“It was a tough game,” he said “I felt that in the first half we were all out of sorts. We looked panicky offensively not running our stuff and they outworked us in that first half. Credit to Perham, they have great defenders and a great all-around team. For us to come back in the second half and put up a good fight and bring it within single digits, it was pretty cool to have that response and resiliency to put up a fight.”
The Perham defense forced 23 Wolverine turnovers and finished with 14 steals. The Yellowjackets stayed dominant on the boards all night with 26 total rebounds and 14 of those coming on the offensive end.
Junior Willow Thiel led all scorers with 18 points. She also tacked on five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Cora Grismer scored 13 points and Kennedy Pilgrim had 11 points. Pilgrim added three offensive rebounds and finished with five total. Olivia Rosenthal was a major part of Perham’s stingy defense and led the way with four steals.
WDC’s Madison Carsten finished with 13 points to lead the Wolverines. Addyson and Peyton Gravelle ended their nights with nine points each.
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Thiel was elated to hear that her team was able to break the three-decade-long drought.
“It is very exciting and at the same time nerve-wracking with all of the emotions that come with it,” she said.
Super reminisced about his early years with the Perham girls basketball program and how those teams got so close but couldn’t make it to the section finals. He was ecstatic to finally make it over the hump and secure a spot in the state tournament.
“It is really amazing,” he said. “When I first got here, it was kind of a struggle for a while but there are a lot of people and a lot of youth coaches who put the time in to get here. The state tournament is the ultimate goal but the outcome of being a really good program feels really great too.”
As Super guided the ship throughout the playoffs, the leadership from two of the Yellowjackets' top players helped to land the team a state tournament berth.
“I would have to say that it was Willow and Mya,” Pilgrim said. “They always have positive things to say and always bring us up. They are the real leaders of our team.”
Super knew this year’s team had a little something extra that has been missing from the previous years.
“This year’s team had a little bit different DNA and swagger,” he said. “We had goals which were to win the conference, go undefeated in conference, and go undefeated in section play. Everything this team set out to do, they have accomplished.”
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What’s next for Perham as the state tournament is approaching next week?
“We will keep going at it at practice next week and work our best,” Morris said. “We know we belong in the state tournament, We have put in the work to make it this far.”
PER 42 16- 58
WDC 24 20- 44
PERHAM- Mya Morris: 2 rebounds, 2 assists, Cora Grimser: 13 points; Olivia Rosenthal: 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, four steals; Kennedy Pilgrim: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal; Olivia Pilgrim: 3 points, 2 rebounds; Willow Thiel: 18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals; Ryleigh Mickelson: 6 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals; Kaia Anderson: 2 assists, 1 steal; Cate Diggins: 5 rebounds
WADENA-DEER CREEK SCORING- Addyson Gravelle 9, Montana Carsten 6, Jada Dykhoff 5, Ally Pavek 2, Madison Carsten 13, Payton Gravelle 9
A full story on the Wadena-Deer Creek girls basketball team’s Cinderella run will be in the next edition of the Wadena Pioneer Journal and online at www.wadenapj.com.
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