Schwegel leads Patriots

STAPLES -- It was only fitting that Chelsa Schwegel scored the game-winning basket in Tuesday's Mid-State Conference girls' basketball game.

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Trailing 51-43, the Pequot Lakes Patriots scored the game's final nine points to upend the Staples-Motley Cardinals 52-51.

Schwegel, who scored seven of her 11 points in the fourth quarter, scored her final two on a short lay-in with less than 30 seconds remaining.

It's fitting because it was Schwegel's father, Randy Schwegel, who was Bob Nelson's assistant coach for many years at Pine River-Backus. Now Nelson is the new head coach at Pequot and once again he got a little help from a Schwegel.

"It was kind of helter skelter there for awhile," said Nelson. "We were running a back door. They were putting pressure on Chelsa and we had been having turnovers the whole game. We just told the other post player to vacate the area and Flecia (Foster) threw a really good pass to get it to her and Chelsa made a nice shot."

Flecia Foster, senior guard, scored 24 points to lead all scorers. She sank two free throws late to bring Pequot to within one. Teresa Parker added 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Patriots. Three of those came during the nine-point run.

"We knew with Staples' defense that we had to go back door," said Foster, who added six rebounds. "We didn't do that a lot during the game and they were overplaying the wings big time. We could only take risks late because nothing would have been hurt."

Pequot's comeback run was helped by S-M's inability to hit free throws late. Jacque Peterson, who scored 13 points, missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Senior Kim Mosack also missed the front end of the bonus.

Mosack led the Cardinals with 15 points and six rebounds. She scored eight of those in the fourth quarter helping S-M to its eight-point lead.

"We had the ball with our two best free throw shooters at the line and we missed," said Cardinals coach Arden Beachy. "We told the girls who was going to score. We told them Pequot has three scorers and one of them is going to go to the basket. We let Schwegel slide down there and I don't know why."

Pequot Lakes 52, Staples-Motley 51

Key: Pequot Lakes scored the game's final nine points to come back and defeat Staples-Motley by a point.

Conference: PL 1-0, SM 0-1.

Overall: PL 1-0 , SM 0-1.

Next game: Pequot Lakes at Pierz 7:30 p.m. Tuesday; Staples-Motley hosts Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Cardinals held a 16-11 lead after the first quarter thanks to seven Patriots turnovers. Pequot finished with 24 to the Cardinals 14.

But S-M shot just 33 percent from the field and 57 percent from the foul line.

"We did what we set out to do, which was make them turn the ball over," said Beachy. "I don't know how many times we turned the ball back over after they turned it over."

Pequot Lakes 11 18 11 12 -- 52

Staples-Motley 16 12 11 12 -- 51

PEQUOT LAKES

Flecia Foster 24, Chelsa Schwegel 11, Mandie Roggenkamp 2, Teresa Parker 15. Team totals: FG 19-38 (50 percent), FT 14-19 (73 percent), 3-point baskets: 0-3 (0 percent).

STAPLES-MOTLEY

Jacque Peterson 13, Melissa Roberts 8, Kim Mosack 15, Kendell Spar 9, Chelsea Einerwold 1, Amanda DiGiovanni 5. Team totals: FG 19-58 (33 percent), FT 8-14 (57 percent), 3-point baskets: 5-18 (27 percent: Mosack 3, Peterson 1, DiGiovanni 1).