ST. PAUL &045; The I-90 A’s continued to earn passing grades.

This time it earned them silver medals.

The A’s, a girls’ basketball team representing Albert Lea and Austin, finished second in the 10th-grade division of The Star of the North State Games June 25-27 in St. Paul.

The A’s entered the tournament undermanned as starting post Liz Thompson is in China performing mission work through July. The team would be further shorthanded as wing Niki Hendrickson would see limited action throughout the weekend due to illness. With seven healthy bodies left for the tournament the team’s conditioning and depth were tested.

The opening game in pool play had the A’s facing MACCRAY. The outcome was never in doubt as the A’s were clicking on all cylinders and took a commanding 40-8 halftime lead. A 20-point margin meant a running clock was used in the second half. The A’s won 50-25. Anna Hebrink led with 17 points followed by 14 from Hali Hendrickson. Niki Hendrickson and Kat Ladwig both added six points.

The second game in pool play was with Hayfield. Led by 10 first half points from Katherine Ladwig the A’s took another big lead and came away with a 43-21 triumph. Hebrink poured in 19 points, including making 11 of 12 free throws. Ladwig had 12 points.

Hayfield went on to finish as the third-place team in the tournament.

The next game was the first in the championship bracket against Mayer Lutheran. Mayer featured two tall posts that caused the A’s a lot of problems in the half-court game. The A’s picked up the tempo using pressure defense and a fast-break offense to offset the height disadvantage. Brooke Monson helped the A’s to a five-point lead at the half by tallying eight points. The lead was cut to one early in the second half before the A’s built it to double digits. Mayer battled back to narrow the gap, but in the end the A’s prevailed 52-45. Hebrink led three A’s in double-figure scoring with 12 points. Hali Hendrickson and Monson added 10 each. Leah Walters contributed eight key points off the bench and Ladwig added seven.

The win propelled the A’s to the semifinals against Hibbing. This game was similar to the previous one with the A’s taking the early lead only to have Hibbing battle back. The results were also similar as the A’s held off their pesky opponent 50-45. Monson pumped in 14 points. Hali Hendrickson followed closely with 13 and Hebrink put in 11.

The championship game was against the Minnesota Thunder, an AAU team from Hopkins. The early part of the contest again proved to be pivotal. This time it was the A’s who found themselves on the short end, down 7-0 before putting their first points on the board. The early deficit and a season low 42 percent at the free-throw line proved too much to overcome. The Thunder held off a frantic comeback effort from the A’s to earn the gold medals with a hard-fought 50-46 victory. Hali Hendrickson and Hebrink led the scoring attack with 17 and 13 points, respectively.

Gretchen Hebrink and Tana Lukes were valuable throughout the tournament for Albert Lea, providing tenacious defense and excellent ball-handling from the guard position.

The A’s have an overall record of 12-2 through four tournaments.