Despite missing three starters due to illness, the Hayfield girls basketball team walked away from the Albert Lea tournament with a championship trophy for the second year in a row.

The Vikings sneaked past Concordia Academy 40-38 in a nail biter Tuesday evening. At half-time, the scoreboard read 22-19, in favor of Concordia.

The girls had an early lead in the beginning at 5-2. The next time the Vikings would see that lead was with 35 seconds on the clock, when Molly Streightiff sunk a three-point shot, bringing the Vikings up by two.

The Vikings went on to hold that lead to the end.

Though the team was missing three starters, eighth grader Johanna Bungum stepped it up, scoring 17 points. Kelsey Severson contributed 9 points.

“We were missing three starters, so we ended up bringing an eighth grader along, and she went off tonight,” said Hayfield head coach Fred Kindschy. “She stepped up tonight like she needed to and came up and made some shots for us that we really needed to have.”

Kindschy said the girls now will have time to rest and prepare for regular season games.

“They’ll have some time to get healed up and ready to hit the ground running next week,” he said.