BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
SEYMOUR—Lily Hansford and Kally VanLaanen each scored 14 points to help the Ashwaubenon Jaguars get a road victory over the Seymour Thunder in girl’s basketball. (Nov.13)
Lydia Schaible added 10 points, and Anna Wendorf 9 points, and 8 rebounds.
Chloe Evans was the only Thunder player in double figures finishing with 10 points.
The Thunder put the first two points on the board thanks in large part to three offensive rebounds to start the game.
VanLaanen hit a tough runner in the lane to give the Jaguars their first lead at 6-4.
Later on, Hansford connected on a reverse layup to notch her first two high school points.
After Evans banked in a three for Seymour to cut the Jaguars lead to 13-11, Ashwaubenon went on an 11-1 run over the course of the next seven minutes.
The frontcourt for the Jaguars presented a huge mismatch in size and strength and Wendorf and Schaible played high-low for easy buckets underneath. That coupled with cold shooting by the Thunder enabled Ashwaubenon to take a 24-12 with just 3:12 left till intermission.
Just before the buzzer sounded, Schaible got a kind bounce of the back iron to put the visitors up 28-15 at the break.
“With the exception of a few put backs, I thought our defense played well on the ball,” said Nicky VanLaanen, Jaguars basketball coach. “We held them to I think six field goals in the first half which is good.”
Ashwaubenon extended their second half lead to 18 points (36-18) after Hansford connected on two of three free throws after having been fouled falling out of bounds from behind the arc.
The Thunder then slowly crept back into the contest behind the second half play of Makaiah Baumgart and Breann Riehl.
Not only did they score, they forced multiple turnovers.
With 4:43 remaining in the game, the Thunder had cut the margin in half to 42-33 and the Jaguars had to burn another time out.
“There was a four to five-minute stretch where I was not pleased with how we handled the ball,” added VanLaanen. “The game was very physical, and we didn’t meet the ball after the passes were delivered.”
Whatever was said in the huddle seemed to settle Ashwaubenon down as they closed the game on a 7-1 run with crisp ball handling and clutch free throws.
“I’m just really proud of this group to come in here and get a victory after very limited practices,” said VanLaanen. “Lily hit some big shots when we needed it, Kally controlled the offense, and our frontcourt was aggressive in their post moves. We have some things we need to clean up, but all the girls gave tremendous effort tonight.”
Ashwaubenon improves to 1-0 and Seymour falls to 0-1.
Box Score:
Ashwaubenon 28, 21 49
Seymour 15, 19 34
Jaguars: Hansford 14, VanLaanen 14, Schaible 10, Wendorf 9, Schlader 2
Thunder: Evans 10, King 6, Riehl 5, Baumgart 5, DeGroot 3, Hansen 3, Seitz 2
