Southwest holds off Pulaski

By William Soquet
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
GREEN BAY – Turnovers and interior play led Green Bay Southwest to a 54-41 win over visiting Pulaski in a Fox River Classic Conference (FRCC) game on Friday night.
The Trojans (12-6, 9-4 FRCC) were also helped on the offensive end by 26 points from junior Addie Pytleski.
The Red Raiders (3-15, 2-11 FRCC) brought the game to within three points in the second half but tapered off on offense near the end of the contest.
While the game opened with each team sinking a 3-pointer on their first offensive possession, it was not a sign of things to come.
Southwest was stout in its interior defense, especially in the first half.
There were a handful of times that a Red Raider would drive into the paint but would not even get a shot off, either due to losing the handle on the ball or having a shot blocked.
On the other end of the floor, Pytleski scored 13 of her team’s 23 points in the first half. Emma Sczarowicz found herself open under the basket a few times and turned those into points as well.
Pulaski wouldn’t go away without a fight, however, and used intermittent press defense to throw a curveball at the Trojans.
“We’ve been going back and forth between press and some buzz. When we get into it and we’re running it pretty well, it works. We’ve been practicing it quite a bit,” said Pulaski coach Doug McElrone.
Southwest coach Tony Lee noted that the Pulaski defense presented a challenge to his team.
“Their press was pretty good tonight, and we had to make some adjustments, but I thought that after the adjustments, we were good,” he said.
Thanks to success there on defense and behind the arc on offense, the Red Raiders kept Southwest to a one- or two-possession lead for most of the first half.
The Trojans took a 23-17 lead to the locker room at halftime.
After the break, Southwest was able to capitalize on a couple of second-chance baskets, using its size to grab offensive rebounds and extend possessions.
They also began to clog up passing lanes, creating turnovers on three straight Pulaski possessions that all turned into transition baskets.
That swung a 29-24 game to a 35-24 game and one that felt like the Red Raiders were losing whatever chance they had left.
Lee noted that quick scores are “something that we really stressed, because the last couple games, we haven’t been ourselves in terms of the transition offense. We really practiced that a lot this week and executed that plan well.”
Pytleski echoed her coach’s sentiments.
“We really put an emphasis on our defense translating to our offense, just getting those stops and then those turned into our offense tonight,” she said.
However, over a span of 2 1/2 minutes of game time, Pulaski whittled the Southwest lead down to three by the midpoint of the second half via a combination of well-executed offensive plays and opportunities at the free throw line.
Just as soon as it came, however, the momentum was gone, and the Trojans quickly extended their lead back to three possessions.
Even when Pulaski’s press created opportunities for fast baskets, those opportunities were rarely converted.
Instead, Southwest was able to keep post looks to a minimum, forcing Pulaski to take mid-range and hook shots when perimeter shots were not available.
Three Red Raiders left the game with injuries and did not return.
“It’s tough to take positives when kids are getting hurt, so that’s kind of a hard thing to swallow,” commented McElrone.
Despite their 2-11 record in conference, McElrone believes that Pulaski is still set up for success in the final month of the season.
“Every game for us, here on out, is winnable for us,” he said. “We’ve been in games with every one of these teams that we’re playing. These kids keep battling, we’ll get better.”