Section 1A Girls Basketball Championship Preview, Gopher Men’s Hockey Team Scrimmage in Austin

ROCHESTER (KAAL TV) – The more games you go without losing, the bigger the target gets.

The Hayfield Viking girls basketball team understands that and they faced adversity when they were down late in the first half of their semifinal matchup against Lanesboro.

They went on a run to tie the game at halftime, but in the opening minutes, it was still a dogfight as the Burros looked to pull off the upset.

The Vikings’ patient, methodical offense helped them seize control and they played outstanding defense to pull out the 60-49 victory.

The win improves Hayfield to 30-0 on the season and head coach Kasey Krekling understands the pressure is going to build for his team.

“Every game from here on out we go 1-0 or if we go 0-1, we lose," Krekling said.

"It really doesn’t matter how many games you’ve won going into this spot. It’s just one game and win and move on or lose and go home. So we treat every game as it’s the most important game of the year because it could be the last and we never want it to be the last so we’ll just keep doing that one game at a time."

Sophomore Kristen Watson says she’s not too worried.

"We know it’s going to get tougher but if we keep pushing each other in practice," Watson said.

"We know we’ll be good so we just gotta play our game."

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In Austin, the Minnesota men’s hockey team made a visit, holding an inner-team scrimmage at Riverside arena.

The Gophers are ranked No. 2 in the nation with a 23-11 record and riding an 8 game win streak.

It was a homecoming of sorts for head coach Bob Motzko as he is a native of Austin.

Minnesota has a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament and will host Penn State in the semifinal round on March 12th at 8 p.m.