By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – The Bay Port girls’ basketball team had three players score in double digits, held off a second-half rally by Green Bay Preble and remained undefeated on the season with a 69-58 Fox River Classic Conference victory over the Hornets Jan. 11 at Preble High School.
McKenzie Johnson (18), Alaina Abel (15) and Emma Nagel (11) led a balanced scoring attack for the No. 2-ranked Pirates (13-0 overall, 9-0 FRCC), who had a 20-point lead late in the first half.
Carley Duffney and Kendall Renard, a UWGB recruit, scored 23 and 13 points, respectively, for the Hornets (11-2, 8-1), who lost their first conference game of the season.
“I tell my girls that’s how we need to start every game,” said Bay Port head coach Kati Coleman. “You need to win the first three minutes of any half and that’s what we did. It was a big win for us and good for us to face some adversity and fight through it. It will get harder from here on out.”
The Pirates couldn’t have started any better in jumping out to an 8-0 lead behind the hot shooting of Johnson, who scored the first six points on consecutive three-pointers.
“McKenzie has been having some off nights and not connected on her threes,” added Coleman. “It was big for her confidence to make that first shot and see it go in the basket. She’s not going to stop shooting if she misses a few shots. When McKenzie is hitting her threes, it’s going to be a good night.”
After Bay Port took a 39-21 lead at the start of the second half, Preble slowly began to chip away with 12-0 run, with Duffney scoring eight during the spurt.
With the crowd back in the game and Bay Port struggling, a well-called timeout by Coleman stopped the bleeding.
Nagel, who sat out a portion of the first half after getting poked in the eye, came out of the huddle and hit a pair of field goals to bump the lead back to 10.
“It wasn’t a good way to start the second half,” said Abel. “Coach told us at halftime that basketball is a game of runs. During the timeout, she told us it was our turn to go on a run, and we did. It was good for us to face that. I owe this game to my teammates for getting me the ball in the lane and setting good picks.”
The Pirates surged back ahead 64-47 with a few minutes remaining, but the Hornets went on a 12-1 run to make it close down the stretch.
Bay Port’s Mady Draak, a Michigan Tech recruit who chipped in with seven points, did a good job containing Renard, who scored just four first-half points.
Grace Krause also added seven points, while Reagan McIntyre tallied six for the Pirates.
Box score
Bay Port: 37, 32 – 69
Preble: 21, 37 – 58
