Rochester Century erased a 10-point deficit in the last five minutes and beat Minnehaha Academy 61-54 in a non-conference girls basketball game Thursday night at the Century gym.
Century surrendered a six-point halftime lead and was trailing 51-41 late in the second half before turning it around.
"We held 'em to one field goal in the last five or six minutes," noted Century coach Chris Stenzel, whose team won its fourth straight and enters the Christmas break with a 6-2 overall record.
Freshman guard Kanani Asuncion continued her hot scoring start with 22 points, and junior Morgan Hartman scored 14. Stenzel noted the play of Laura Branstad and Alecia Kupfer both of whom scored eight points off the bench.
Century zipped to a double-digit lead midway through the first half and led 28-22 at the break. But the Panthers sputtered to start the second half.
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"To be honest the girls were a little emotionally drained after that win over Owatonna on Tuesday," Stenzel said. "We just kind of stopped playing defense for a while; it wasn't pretty out there, I'm sure."
Century opens the Rotary US Bank Holiday Classic tournament at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday against Lakeville North (5-3), the two-time defending tournament champion ranked No. 3 in Class AAAA.
Century 61, Minnehaha Academy 54
MINNEHAHA ACADEMY (54)
Maddie Pielert 2, Gabbi Stienstra 18, Anna Scholl 6, Andrea Scharf 8, Nicole Nipper 18, Maddie Johnson 2.
CENTURY (61)
Kanani Asuncion 22, Myesha Caldwell 1, Alice Zumbrunnen 6, Morgan Hartman 14, Laura Branstad 8, Deleonne Clark 2, Alecia Kupfer 8.
Halftime: CENT 28, 22.
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Free throws: 6-14, CENT 16-23.
Three-point goals: 6 (Nipper 4, Stienstra 2), CENT 5 (Zumbrunnen 3, Branstad 2, Asuncion 1).
