By Mike Drooger –

Andrew Fleischman’s Flying Dutchmen girls’ basketball team battled with all its might on Monday night, December 20, against the Knights of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, the same night the Minnesota Vikings tried their best to lose to the Chicago Bears. Chicago’s biggest problem vs. the Vikes, according to the announcers, was “penalties and turnovers.” The same could be said about the Dutchmen ladies as they committed 28 fouls and suffered 30 turnovers in a tough 69-65 loss.

The Knights tried their best to let the Dutchmen steal a win at home by missing 20 free throws (24-for-44), but a difficult stretch late in the second half by EHS changed the com-plexion of the game and led to the Knights’ victory.

Turnovers were the story of the game right out of the gate for the Dutchmen as they turned the ball over four of their first five possessions. That unfortunate ratio caused a quick six-point deficit for the Dutchmen. Edgerton outscored RTR by two points the rest of the game but the early hole led to defeat.

Reece Wassink, who picked up right where she left off offensively versus Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey her previous game, scored her team’s first five points. After Mateya Gilbertson got a steal, she hit Wassink on the block for two. Later, Wassink converted an old-fashioned three-point play for a score of 5-6. Neither team was able to pull away over the remainder of the first half so the score was 30-28 in favor of RTR at intermission. Knights fans thought they might have had a five-point lead when one of their players hit a shot from three quarters court, but the officials signaled the shot attempt came after the buzzer had sounded.