MACCRAY will rebuild with some returning talent

BY TOM ELLIOTT | West Central Tribune

CLARA CITY — The MACCRAY Wolverines girls basketball team are starting with a bit of clean slate in 2022-23 after losing roughly 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds from last season’s 14-14 squad.

The Wolverines return talented senior Sydney Thein and exciting freshman guard Brielle Janssen from a squad that lost four seniors.

Gone is Ella Bourne, a 1,000-point scorer, as well as Gabby Randt, Elsie Sumner and Brynn Lozinski. The four helped MACCRAY go deep into the Section 3A playoffs, earning wins over Canby (51-42) and Lac qui Parle Valley (48-47) before succumbing to Minneota (58-37). Minneota wound up finishing second in the state Class A tournament last year.

But the cupboard’s not bare.

Two starters return. One is Thein, a 5-foot-9 senior guard who is coming off an all-area volleyball season. She’s a future volleyball player for Division II Southwest Minnesota State. Thein averaged 5.3 points and 2.0 rebounds per game last season.

The other starter back is Janssen. She’s a 6-0 freshman guard who has Wolverines head coach Shaun Condon excited about the season.

“Brielle is an incredible athlete and will play point guard for us at 6-feet tall,” Condon said. “She played incredible in our run to the sub-section championship last year.”

Janssen averaged 11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 1.7 assists per game as an eighth-grader.

Two other players to watch are junior guards Annie Bourne and Ella Kienitz.

“Annie is a great shooter and she is a really good perimeter defender,” said Condon, who has a 63-61 career record in six seasons.

Bourne averaged 3.7 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. Kienitz averaged 1.8 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

“Ella did well in her minutes last year,” Condon said. “She will hopefully make a big leap this year.”