Rasner hits 1,000 points; Rockets fall
STEPHENSON — Stephenson’s Autumn Rasner dropped 33 points and became the ninth member of the Eagles 1,000-point club in a 90-46 win over Rapid River here Monday.
In the first three minutes of the game, she converted two 3-point plays and scored a basket in transition to help Stephenson get out to a 10-5 lead. A few minutes later, she made her 10th point of the game and with 23.2 seconds left in the first quarter, she etched her name into the Stephenson record books yet again with a 3-pointer for her 1,001st point of her career.
“To do it at home, on senior night, in front of all of my friends and my family is amazing,” Rasner said. “My team really helped me out tonight, they knew how close I was and how badly I wanted this. They kept feeding me the ball until I hit it and then we settled back in and played our normal game.”
Stephenson led 18-17 after the first quarter and used a huge second half to send its seniors off the right way with a 90-46 win. The Eagles’ 90 points breaks the previous single game record of 88.
Rasner’s hot hand cooled a bit in the second quarter, but Stephenson was able to take a 37-29 lead into halftime.
“We had just played them on Friday so everything was still fresh in the girls’ minds as to what we wanted to do tonight,” Stephenson coach Shanna Beal said. “We’ve been trying to push our tempo and defensive intensity because we kind of settled in the middle of the season after starting the year with that intensity. Especially with playoffs coming up, this was a good game for us to have.”
The Eagles came out of the locker room at halftime with the same intensity, while Rapid River was struggling to make anything happen.
“The girls wanted to change things up on defense and I let them overrule me to prove a point,” Rockets’ coach Anthony Perino said. “They made it hard on us the whole game, especially once they started pressing in the second half to get the points record. They’re a talented team and I take nothing away from them, but we have to play better defense than we did tonight.”
Rapid River scored the first points of the fourth quarter to make it 63-40 until Stephenson scored the next six points.
Stephenson’s lead grew to 84-44 on Skylar Swanson’s basket and the Eagles’ record-breaking bucket came from Makayla Johnson with under a minute to play.
Rasner lit up the Rockets from all over the place all night long, finishing the game with 33 points and 1,021 for her career. Kuntze added 17 points and Emily Johnson had 14.
Natalie Belanger led Rapid River with 12 points.
The Eagles travel to Superior Central tonight, while the Rockets host Mid Peninsula tonight.
Rapid River 17 12 9 8 — 46
Stephenson 18 19 26 27 — 90
Rapid River — Belanger 12, Schwartz 8, Goodacre 6, Christianson 5, Thibault 4, Vandeville 4, Keys 3, Moss 2, Paulin 1, Rubick 1.
Stephenson — Rasner 33, Kuntze 17, E. Johnson 14, Cappaert 7, Schultz 5, M. Johnson 4, Verba 4, Syd. Swanson 2, Sky. Swanson 2, Jasmine Gibellina 1.