By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
SHAWANO – The West De Pere girls’ basketball team used a 22-0 first-half run to defeat the Shawano Hawks, 58-47, in a game played at Shawano High School Feb. 8.
With the victory, the Phantoms (15-5 overall, 13-0) clinched the Bay Conference championship and have won the title four of the past five years.
“It’s pretty special to bring the championship back home to West De Pere,” said West De Pere head coach Chris Abaray. “We got off to such a tremendous start with shots falling from everywhere on the court.”
Bailey Baeten led the Phantoms with 13 points, while Alexa Thomson and Casey Jepson each added 12.
After Tori DePerry, who scored a game-high 17, put Shawano (11-8, 9-4) up 2-0, the Hawks didn’t see the scoreboard for the next 6 minutes.
During the spurt, six different West De Pere players scored, and Shawano had to burn two timeouts.
After the dust had settled, the Phantoms had taken a 22-2 lead, stunning the senior-night crowd.
The Hawks managed to pull within 31-17 heading into the intermission.
“I thought we did a really good job sagging on DePerry in the first half,” Abaray said. “She didn’t have a field goal through the first 18 minutes and they (Shawano) go through her.”
Shawano cut the margin to 11 early in the second half after DePerry connected on a triple.
The Phantoms, however, countered with an 11-2 run that was fueled by Jepson scoring three baskets for a 42-22 lead with 11 minutes remaining.
Shawano made one final push to cut the lead to nine points, but that’s as close as they would get.
“We ran quite a bit of clock down the stretch and wanted layups or to get fouled,” Abaray added. “We didn’t handle their pressure very well, but luckily had built a big lead. I’m looking forward to the seeding meeting tomorrow and closing out the regular season next Thursday against East.”
Box Score
West De Pere: 31, 27—58
Shawano: 17, 30—47
Phantoms: Baeten 13, Thomson 12, Jepson 12, McNabb 8, Ninham 7, Appleton 6.
Hawks: DePerry 17, Buschman 8, Dreier 8, Reed 6, Habeck 2, Young 2, Beyer 2, Johnson 2.
