Ryan Ladika/MDN Surrey's Morgan Andersen, right, dribbles around a defender during the first quarter of the Mustangs' win over Powers Lake Monday night.

After the Surrey Mustangs emerged on the wrong end of a gritty, defensive first quarter, Amelia Hoffman began to find her rhythm on the offensive end.

The junior center made a trio of two-point jump shots and cashed in both tries from the charity stripe to lead Surrey High School on a 12-2 run that aided the Mustangs in taking command of their Monday evening matchup against the Powers Lake Ranchers. On the strength of its dominant second frame, Surrey rolled to a 57-32 victory to close out the first day of the 2021 Nedrose Girls’ Basketball Invitational.

“We’re a young team. We graduated all our seniors so they’re kind of finding their way,” Surrey head coach Ronald Aberle said. “I called timeout and said, ‘everybody take a big breath, relax a little bit.’ And then we did switch the offense we were running in the second quarter, and they felt more comfortable with that, and it was working pretty good for them.”

The Ranchers outlasted Surrey in the opening eight minutes of the contest, led by five Savanna Fredrickson points on a mid-range shot and a successful try from beyond the arc.

Chiara Rystedt made her two free throw attempts to close out the quarter for Powers Lake, which held a slim 10-7 advantage at the pause. Melissa Dougan’s three points led the Mustangs as the team tried to solve the Ranchers’ defensive scheme.

Dougan and Harli Dickman kicked off Surrey’s prolific second quarter with five of the Mustangs’ first nine points before Powers Lake pulled the score to within two on a two-point shot by Grace Lidstrom and another by Aliza Schroeder.

Hoffman then took command of the affairs, leading Surrey to a 28-16 halftime lead. Her eight points paced the team in a quarter during which the Mustangs doubled the Ranchers’ score, an outburst that started on the other end.

“It all started with our defense,” Aberle said. “We were full-court man-to-man, and we created some turnovers. Amelia, she gets kind of nervous. She just needs to relax, and she did in the second quarter. She played big inside for us, that was a big thing.”

Hoffman added a pair of layups in a third quarter-opening 8-2 run, and after Fredrickson, Schroeder and Tianna Enget struck back for Powers Lake with a 7-2 stretch, Amanda Severson’s three free throws after she was fouled beyond the arc led a quarter-closing 4-0 Mustangs run.

“I think with Ron’s motivation for us, he kept believing in us, and we did what we’re supposed to do,” Hoffman said. “We made the layups and had good defense and boxing out helped a lot. Our man defense on the ball, I think that helped create turnovers.”

Surrey held the Ranchers to just three made field goals and a free throw in the final eight minutes. Severson and Sienna Klimpel each notched four points down the stretch on the other side to seal the 25-point victory, the Mustangs’ first of the season following a 55-43 loss to Garrison in their Nov. 30 season-opener.

Hoffman’s 14 points marked a game-high, followed by Severson’s 10 and Dougan’s nine. Powers Lake was led by Camryn Rystedt’s eight points and Fredrickson’s seven.

With the win, Surrey advances to the tournament semifinals in a matchup with Rolette Friday evening, with tipoff scheduled for 6 p.m. Powers Lake falls to the consolation side of the bracket to face Trenton, which lost to the Comets in the evening’s first contest, at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.

The Our Redeemer’s Knights will face Lewis & Clark North Shore-Plaza at 5:30 p.m., and the Nedrose Cardinals will match up with Lewis & Clark Berthold at 7 p.m. Tuesday evening to round out quarterfinal action.