BY RICH PALZEWIC
SPORTS EDITOR
GREEN BAY – The Bay Port girls’ basketball team used a 17-0 run that traversed both halves to post a 48-36 Fox River Classic Conference road win over Green Bay Notre Dame Dec. 4.
Trailing 20-18 late in the first half, Bay Port (3-0 overall, 2-0 FRCC) turned the 2-point deficit into a 15-point lead to help it remain unbeaten on the season.
“Notre Dame is coached well,” said Bay Port head coach Kati Coleman. “(Notre Dame head coach) Sara (Rohde) always gets her girls playing hard no matter what game it is. She could get them to play hard in a cookie-making contest.”
Junior Emma Nagel had a big game in scoring 18 points and pulling down 15 rebounds. She also had four assists and three steals.
“It was a good defensive effort for us,” Coleman said. “We needed to play well in the second half if we wanted to win tonight.”
At one point in the first half, the Tritons held a 15-10 lead and appeared to be gaining momentum, but Coleman settled her crew down with a well-called timeout halfway through the half to stop the bleeding.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” said Coleman. “We know Notre Dame isn’t a team that is going to lay down. We still have a lot of things to work on, so it was nice playing a team like them early to help show us what we need to work on in practice.”
The Pirates had 17 turnovers but offset that with 14 steals and forcing 25 Notre Dame turnovers.
“I can handle a little bit of being ‘sloppy,’ Coleman added. “I told the girls I know we’re going to have turnovers, but we can’t have unforced turnovers.”
After Bay Port took a 35-20 lead in the second half, the Tritons clawed their way back with their own 9-0 run to pull within six.
Bay Port shot just 35 percent (17-48) from the floor but out-rebounded Notre Dame by a 33-20 margin.
Alaina Abel and McKenzie Johnson added 8 and 7 points, respectively, for the Pirates.
Reagan McIntyre recorded five steals and grabbed six rebounds.
After traveling to Manitowoc Lincoln Dec. 6, the Pirates will host state-ranked De Pere (5-0 overall, 3-0 FRCC) Dec. 11 at 7:00 in a big early-season showdown.
Box score
Bay Port: 23, 25 – 48
Notre Dame: 20, 16 – 36
Scoring: Krause 4, Krueger 2, Abel 8, McIntyre 4, Johnson 7, Nagel 18, Draak 5.
