BY MURRAY GLEFFE
CORRESPONDENT
ASHWAUBENON—The Pulaski Red Raiders girls’ basketball team used their full court pressure defense to force 27 turnovers in defeating the Ashwaubenon Jaguars 52-35 in a FRCC game held, Dec. 7, at Ashwaubenon High School.
Jasmine Litt led the Red Raiders with 16 points and Sheridan Flauger added 13.
Anna Wendorf led the Jaguars with nine.
Ashwaubenon jumped out to an early 6-1 lead behind baskets by Elyse Ark, Crystal Kunesh, and Madi Appleton.
Then, Pulaski ramped up its full court pressure and it produced multiple possessions where the Jaguars couldn’t get the ball over half court.
The Red Raiders capitalized going on a 15-4 run to take a 16-10 lead with 10:06 left in the first half.
Much of the damage was done by Flauger from the outside and Litt from the interior.
The Jaguars front-line rotation was shorthanded with fourth leading scorer Lydia Schaible out with a lower leg injury.
Late in the half and the Red Raiders still holding a six-point lead at 22-16, the Jaguars finally got some offensive production.
They closed out the first half strong by going on an 11-4 spurt after Wendorf powered up a couple of baskets, Kally Van Laanen hit a top of the key 24- footer, and Brenna Schlader beat the halftime horn by knocking down a right-wing triple to give Ashwaubenon a 27-26 lead at the break.
It looked like for all intent purposes the game could come down to a final possession.
One team then came out of the locker room ready to play and the other didn’t.
The Red Raiders quickly jumped on the Jaguars early and often.
Paige Steinbrecher hit an elbow jumper and that was followed up by a free throw jumper by Litt, three free throws, and a Maggie Hernandez lay-up off a Jaguars turnover.
Jaguars Head Coach Nicky VanLaanen had seen enough, and she called the first of many timeouts in half number two.
The Red Raiders kept the pedal on the gas as Flauger added a jumper and Chelsey Gilson connected on an old fashioned three-point play to give Pulaski a 48-31 lead with 7:14 left in the game.
It was part of a 22-4 burst out of the second half gates.
The Red Raiders then took a couple of minutes off the clock on successive possessions and buried free throws down the stretch to go onto victory.
“We did not execute our press breaker like we prepared,” said Jaguars Head Coach, Nicky VanLaanen. “Offensively our turnovers caused us too few possessions to execute properly and get into an offensive rhythm.”
Pulaski improves to 4-3 overall and (1-2, FRCC) and Ashwaubenon falls to 3-3 overall and (2-1, FRCC).
Box Score:
Pulaski: 26,26—52
Ashwaubenon: 27,8—35
Red Raiders: Litt 16, Flauger 13, Hernandez 9, C. Gilson 7, Szymanski 3, Gilson 2, Steinbrecher 2
Jaguars: Wendorf 9, VanLaanen 8, Ark 6, Kunesh 4, Schlader 3, Appleton 2, Marohl 2, Severson 1
