By JEREMY MILLSOP
Sports Writer

Friday night will be the biggest game of Nikki Pearson's five-year varsity career.

She's hoping its not the last as her unranked Staples-Motley Cardinals will face the second-ranked Sauk Centre Mainstreeters for the Section 6-2A title at Halenbeck Hall on the campus of St. Cloud State University.

"We're pretty excited for Friday," said Pearson. "We kind of expected to go far this season because that was our goal at the beginning of this season.

"We're pretty confident because our defense had really picked up. We're relying a lot on our defense, plus, we've been hitting our shots, too."

Pearson and the 24-5 Cardinals opened the playoffs with a 71-33 win over Breckenridge, a 65-32 win over Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and advanced to Friday's final with a 56-52 victory over Benson for the West Subsection title.

That three-game stretch is part of an eight-game win streak that began with a 73-53 victory over Wahpeton. Since that time, the Cardinals have held every opponent, but one, under 40 points. For the season S-M outscored opponents an average of 57.8-42.4.

"I really like how physical they play in the man-to-man defense," said Sauk Centre head coach Scott Bergman. "That will present some challenges for us. I really like how Pearson can dribble penetrate and get by people. That's going to pose some problems, too. It looks like they change up their defenses quiet a bit. It's going to require some concentration on our part to play well."

The Mainstreeters began the season ranked No. 5 in 2A. They rose to No. 1 on Jan. 6 thanks to a 10-0 start that included a victory over Maranatha Christian at the breakdown Tip-off Classic in Hopkins.

Sauk Centre didn't lose until Feb. 23 when they fell to new No. 1 New London-Spicer 45-41. That was followed by a loss to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in the West Central Conference championship game.

In the East Subsection bracket, Sauk Centre defeated Holdingford 78-42 and got revenge of NL-S 45-32 to set up Friday's matchup.

"We've scouted them a couple of times," said Pearson. "They have three good girls and they have a lot of posts, who get after the boards. We have to be ready to contend with that and go after the rebounds."

The Mainstreeters enter the school's first section final with a 25-2 record. Neither team has played at SCSU and Bergman wasn't sure how his team would react to the larger arena.

"We're in uncharted ground right now and I'm not sure how they're going to handle it," he said. "We've never been to this game before. It's going to be interesting to see how they handle it."

The Mainstreeters will start three seniors, junior guard Maren Greenwaldt and 6-foot sophomore guard Kali Peschel. All five are returning starters from last year. Sauk Centre had 10 girls as tall or taller than S-M's tallest girl.

While the Mainstreeters are a senior-dominated squad, the Cardinals' roster is filled with freshmen and eighth-graders, who are contributing.

"That's been a lot of fun," said Pearson. "It's nice knowing that when somebody comes off the court we don't see a drop in play. It's also nice knowing that all the girls are on the same page and have the same goal in mind and are willing to go out and get it."

"It" is a state tournament appearance. The Mainstreeters have never been there. The last time S-M was there Ron Beachy was head coach. Now his son, Arden Beachy, will get his chance to break an eight-year drought and the Cardinals to state.

JEREMY MILLSOP may be reached at jeremy.millsop@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5856.