By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor

GREEN BAY – The De Pere girls’ basketball team started slowly in a 51-48 loss to Green Bay Preble Jan. 8 at Preble High School.

The Fox River Classic Conference setback for the Redbirds (10-3 overall, 6-3 FRCC) was their second in a row, while the Hornets (11-1, 8-0) remained perfect in the rugged FRCC.

Preble was led by the one-two punch of Carley Duffney (16) and Kendall Renard (13). Taylor Sleger (10) also scored in double digits.

Both the sophomore Duffney and the junior Renard are averaging about 19 points per game.

“We dug ourselves a hole early but found a way to claw our way back,” said De Pere head coach Jeremy Boileau. “We were there for the challenge against Renard – she’s a great player – but we needed to make a few more plays down the stretch. Our conference is very good and we need to find a way to play like we were early in the year.”

The victory for the Hornets set up a conference showdown with Bay Port (12-0, 8-0) Nov. 11 at Preble High School.

“There is always a lot of pressure on Carley and Kendall to play well every night,” said Preble coach Jim Doell. “It was definitely a game of runs and I give De Pere a lot of credit – they have some good senior leadership. It’s going to be exciting playing Bay Port. I know our girls are up for it and I’m sure they will be, too.”

The Redbirds fell behind 7-0 before Ellie Schneider nailed a three-pointer to get De Pere on the board. Schneider, who scored 8 points in the game, gave the Redbirds a nice spark off the bench.

“Ellie knows her role is to come in and give us some energy,” Boileau said. “When we were struggling to score early on, she gave us a big lift with the three-pointer and then another bucket a little bit later. We kind of got going as a team after that.”

De Pere rebounded from its slow start to take a 22-20 lead into the break.

With the Hornets leading 47-43 late, Rachel Kerkhoff nailed a three to pull the Birds to within a single point.

Renard then hit a pair of free throws before Duffney added a field goal with under a minute remaining to bump the lead to five.

After Natalie Cerrato drained two from the charity stripe to cut the deficit to three, De Pere had the ball for a final shot but came up empty.

Jordan Meulemans led the Redbirds with 15 points, while Cerrato added 11.

Box score

De Pere: 22, 26 – 48
Preble: 20, 31 – 51