And shooting? Well, at least it improved by the end of the game.

"I think we were nervous," Lady Norse head coach Davis Lamppa said after the game.

I don't know why — our goal is to win the conference, and we knew we needed to win this one, but we settled down a bit in the second half."

The second half — and the second half of the second half — came after a slow and arduous first. The Lady Norse half-court trap was effective to start out the game, but they couldn't convert their defense into offense. They crawled to an 8-7 lead before Lamppa took a timeout.

The timeout didn't do much to stop the Cardinals rebounding. Add in some hustle plays from Cardinal Delany Kittel, which gave her a few trips to the line and four first-quarter points off the bench, and the Cardinals were only down two, 17-15, going into the second quarter.

"We knew this was going to be a tough game and one that we were ready to play," Kate Brau, head coach of the Cardinals, said. "It was back and forth tonight — both teams did a great job."

The momentum the Cardinals brought into the second quarter quickly tied the game, though it wouldn't last long. Soon after the tie, Mesabi's Alexis Boissy picked up a loose ball and took it the length of the court. She went up strong against a Cardinal post player and completed an and-one to make the score 20-18.

The strong Lady Norse guard play continued when Morgan Johnson came off the bench and slashed her way through the physical Cardinal lane for a few scores as well, forcing the Cardinals to take a timeout down 26-22.

But the scoring came in spurts, and as the Lady Norse continued to grow their lead it was only a matter of time until the Cardinals responded. The Cardinals started giving Hudelson the ball in the paint after Cora Peterson ran into foul trouble; she helped bring the Cardinals back to within one with 4.3 seconds left in the half.

However, a last-second shot from Boissy, from a poor inbound pass and from about eight or nine feet from beyond the arc, gave the Lady Norse the lead, 34-30, going into the second half.

Besides some back and forth, the Cardinals came out strong in the second half, once again using their rebounding to keep the score close. But a Taneesha Dupree three-pointer started a 9-1 Lady Norse run catapulted by their defense. A steal from Lexi Hill, another from Boissy and then a huge three from Morgan Johnson made the score 47-39.

"We rely on our defense to create our offense," Lamppa said, "and we didn't do a good job of that in the first half, thought we did better in the second half."

Though the game was still anyone's, the Lady Norse were starting to break away, up 49-46 going into the fourth quarter.

Hill helped widen that gap immensely.

Immediately from the first play of the fourth quarter it was clear she upped her intensity for the home stretch. A few hustle plays brought her to the line, but she really shined when she grabbed a tip-in mid-air and, falling over a Cardinal, threw the ball into the basket from a near-impossible angle.

That type of hustle eventually kept the Lady Norse one step in front of the Cardinals, with transition points and steals making up the bulk of their scoring in the fourth. Moreover, their (skilled) depth kept them fresh, and some impressive hustle plays from sophomore Brielle Wills rounded out the win.

"We play 9 or 10 girls, and when we can wear teams out in the second half, that's great," Lamppa said. "I'm happy we got out of here with the win."

That was something Brau agreed with, though to her the Lady Norse stood out more in terms of their experience than their depth.

"I think we did a great job of rebounding once again," she said. "We're a strong rebounding team, and we were able to out-rebound them, so that was a positive.

"But we are a young team, we are entirely made up of freshman," she added. "They're better, they're seasoned and make more plays down the stretch. Once again, they did that tonight."

The Lady Norse are now 17-5 overall and 8-1 in the MCAC North, while Hibbing drops to 3-7 in the MCAC North and 6-17 overall. They face off against Rainy River today at 1 p.m.

Mesabi Range 17 17 15 21 — 70

Hibbing 15 15 16 11 — 57

MRC: Brielle Wills 16, Taneesha Dupree 11, Lexi Hill 6, Alexis Boissy 15, Morgan Johnson 11, Abby Mayry 5, MaKayla Goerdt 2, Cora Peterson 4. 3-Pointers: Dupree 3, Boissy 1, Johnson 1. Free Throws: 15-19. Team Fouls: 15. Fouled Out: None.

HCC: Justice Makesroom-Janke 5, Diana Clement 13, Allison Gordon 6, Lexi Kudis 10, Jess Nicholson 11, April Hudelson 6, Delaney Kittel 5, Meg Justison 1. 3-Pointers: Kudis 1, Nicholson 1. Free Throws: 15-22. Team Fouls: 19. Fouled Out: Judis, Kittel.