By Greg Bates
Correspondent
PULASKI — Entering the season, West De Pere Phantoms girls’ basketball coach Chris Abaray said he knew he had four solid freshmen that would be on his varsity squad.
What Abaray didn’t know was how those underclassmen would respond early in the year on the big stage.
Abaray got his answer in the season opener.
Three of the freshmen played against Pulaski — with Faith Walder and Ella Francois starting — and combined for 20 points.
The youngsters helped West De Pere come back from a 13-point, second-half deficit to down Pulaski 55-49 in overtime in a non-conference game Tuesday, Nov. 16.
West De Pere started an entirely different lineup than last season after losing eight seniors.
“We got the monkey off our back with an inexperienced team,” Abaray said. “We talked in the locker room, it’s one game and we can’t be too up and we can’t be too content. We have to take the good and the bad of what happened and learn from it. With some of our better teams in the past, we lost the first couple of games. You can’t let anything that happens early in the season dictate what happens next. It’s a part of the piece. We’ve got to keep them grounded and keep working and chipping away. Every day is a clean slate.”
Pulaski (0-1) controlled the game in the opening half, building a 28-19 advantage after Ella Wiese had a putback basket at the buzzer to build her team’s lead.
“We were in a dogfight in the first half,” Abaray said. “The girls we had in at the end of the first half in the last five or six minutes, we had lots of different rotations we never looked at in practice. They did a nice job keeping the game within reach. We talked in the locker room, if we let the game get to 20 at halftime, we’re in big trouble. The last group was a huge part of us being able to be in a position to come back.”
The Red Raiders were seemingly in control up 34-21 earl. y in the second, but West De Pere (1-0) didn’t back down.
The Phantoms went on a 12-1 run as freshman Madisyn Berggren scored eight points during that spurt.
“They turned the pressure up on us and we panicked,” Pulaski Head Coach Doug McElrone said. “I don’t know if I’d call it a panic because we got complacent. We’re not going to win many games shooting 12-for-26 from the free-throw line. We had a chance when we were up 13, and we missed six straight (shots). That can’t happen. We’re a better shooting team than that.”
The Phantoms came back to tie the game at 43-43 thanks to a nifty three-point play.
Francois had a nice pass inside to Makenzie Konop for a basket and foul.
“Coach definitely pulled us together and gave us some motivation to pick it up because everyone was tired,” Konop said. “We’re out of shape, but it’s the first game.”
Konop, a senior, scored with 43 remaining in the second half, but Brynn Egnarski answered 10 seconds later to ultimately send the game to overtime tied at 45.
In the extra session, Katie Waukau converted a layup with 1:40 left to put the Phantoms up 50-47.
She added a pair of free throws to pad the lead.
Down four with under a minute remaining, Pulaski got off two 3-point attempts, but they didn’t fall as West De Pere pulled off the come-from-behind victory.
Konop scored a game-high 13 points for the Phantoms.
“Makenzie (Konop) did a nice job sealing, finding and finishing, too,” Abaray said. “She did a great job against contact, finishing up high, getting some and-ones. It was important that we were able to complete those passes, and she was able to finish the job.”
Victoria Karchinski added nine points for the Phantoms, while Berggren had eight points, Waukau had seven and Walder and Francois chipped in six apiece.
Pulaski was led by Ashlyn Szymanski with 12 points, and Egnarski put in nine points.
“We’re a young team, and it takes lots of us to learn how to play with each other again,” Konop said. “Overall, I think we’re doing well so far.”