The Vermilion Ironhawks’ gas tank came up empty at the wrong time.
After an opening night win and a decent first half in the second game of a two-game road swing, the community college women’s basketball team faded fast Saturday.
That allowed St. Cloud Tech to rally and pull out a 70-63 win, The host Cyclones outscored Vermilion 48-30 in the second half and 29-18 in the pivotal fourth quarter, snapping a brief twogame winning streak for the Ironhawks, who beat M State-Fergus Falls the night before.
“Overall it was a decent trip,” said Vermilion Head Coach Ryan Zyla. “We’re still a young team growing up and unfortunately on the second day we sort of learned the hard way.”
Vermilion (5-4) dominated early on against the Cyclones leading 21-9 after one quarter.
But missed opportunities in the second may have created an opening for the hosts, who pounced after the break.
“We missed a lot of easy layups and I don’t think we shot free throws very well either,” said Zyla. “And I think it just kind of took our energy, and we didn’t handle adversity as well as we could.”
Three Cyclones scored in double figures, with Brooklyn Fischer going 14-for-16 at the free throw line on the way to a 22-point afternoon.
Madison Bass added another 20 points and teammate Kahlia Bradley poured in 11.
For Vermilion, Alyria Greene led with 17 points and the six-foot freshman was a rebound shy of a double- double.
Vermilion’s Tamia Cahee had 13 points and six rebounds before fouling out and Aleysha Maya, who hails from Ecuador, went beyond the arc to sink three triples and finish with nine points.
Kye Clater added another eight points with six rebounds for the Ironhawks.
• The night before, Vermilion piled up 28 first-quarter points on the way to a 7757 win against Fergus Falls.
“We jumped out to leads both nights,” said Zyla. “Our pressure gave them fits and we played really well for the first quarter. They made a run at us, but then we countered and made a good run at them toward the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.”
Guard Tritiny Bodie, a freshman, scored 21 points to pace the Ironhawks while both Cahee and Danita Gonzalez finished with 10 points each.
Gonzalez, a freshman from Henderson, TX, also had eight of the team’s 23 steals.
Clater came off the bench to contribute 10 more points and Maya wound up with eight.
• The grind continues for the Ironhawks this weekend with a two-game road trip to Iowa, including a matchup against powerful North Iowa Area, and a Dec. 5 home rematch with Anoka-Ramsey, the nation’s top-ranted NJCAA Division III team, looms.
Vermilion lost to the Rams earlier this month in a neutral-site encounter at Hibbing.
“We’re very excited to play them at home and we felt we were right there with them last time,” said Zyla. “We’re excited about that and we do play NIACC this coming weekend. We do have that Anoka game circled and just to have the opportunity to play at home is exciting. It seems as if we’ve been on the road all season.”
The Ironhawks host Anoka- Ramsey at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 5, with a 1 p.m. home matinee to follow against Riverland the next day.
