Tori Oehrlein Powering Crosby-Ironton Girls’ Basketball to Blistering Start

Crosby-Ironton girls’ basketball has put together some pretty impressive seasons over the last two decades, but none where they’ve started 14-0. Coming off of two straight state tournament appearances, the Rangers are ranked second in Class AA and are off to their best start in over 15 years.

The team is led by junior standout Tori Oehrlein, who committed to Minnesota last fall. She’s averaged 30 points, 17 rebounds, 10 assists, and seven steals a game.

“Points do matter, but it doesn’t matter if I score it or my teammates score it. That’s all that matters if we get the points up on the board,” Oehrlein said. “Whoever gets it, gets the job done and I feel like a big goal for me this year was being more aggressive on defense, which has helped a lot, you can see in the stats.”

Oehrlein is also the state’s fastest high school player ever to 1,000, 2,000, and 3,000 points, and she’s now only 141 points from eclipsing the 4,000-point mark. However, scoring barely scratches the surface of the future Golden Gopher’s impact on the court.

“The girls have developed a lot, so my assists obviously are going up this year,” Oehrlein said. “We have Regan [Juenemann] who’s been a big help to us. But I think my main goal has just been playing the way I’ve always played, and play unselfishly and getting the job done at the end of the day.”

And when you have someone garnering the attention Oehrlein does, it’s no surprise to see the entire Rangers roster thriving. They’ve averaged 80 points a game while allowing only 46 points per match, down from last year’s average of 58.

“I just run the court and I just think Tori throws it down the court and I catch it, and it just – it works so well.” said guard Sammie Hachey. “No team is expecting us to be that fast.”

“Everybody on the team is athletic,” explained Juenemann. “When they get the floor, they know how to pressure the girls. Our bigs work hard down low, our outside girls cheating up. That puts a lot of pressure on the offense.”

Last year, the Rangers picked up their first ever state tournament win in school history before falling in the semifinals to Providence Academy, the same team currently topping the Class AA rankings. They stand as a mountain the Crosby-Ironton girls’ hope to summit.

“It is a goal to bring a state championship and keep making history for Crosby,” Oehrlein said. “Crosby’s on the map now, which is good, and which has been a goal of mine ever since I was little.”

Crosby-Ironton will look to stay undefeated Thursday when they host conference foe Pequot Lakes. The Rangers are also currently riding a 29-game home winning streak.