By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
ASHWAUBENON – The Bay Port girls’ basketball team remained unbeaten with a 70-36 Fox River Classic Conference victory over Ashwaubenon Feb. 1 at Ashwaubenon High School.
The Pirates (18-0 overall, 14-0 FRCC) put four players in double figures as Grace Krause and McKenzie Johnson led the way with 12 points apiece.
“To have six of our players score from 8-12 points tonight shows that on any given night somebody can lead us in scoring,” said Bay Port head coach Kati Coleman about her team’s performance.
The Jaguars (8-10 overall, 6-8 FRCC) were paced by Kally VanLaanen who scored all nine of her points from behind the arc.
It was Ashwaubenon that jumped out to an early 8-2 start after burying a couple of treys.
The Pirates then showed why they are the No. 2-ranked team in Division 1 by going on a 19-0 run to go up 21-8 with 6:40 left in the half. During the spurt, Ashwaubenon committed 11 turnovers as the Pirates got multiple baskets while in transition.
“We didn’t break their press well after we got out to a good start,” said Ashwaubenon head coach Nicky VanLaanen. “They are a great team and that run obviously hurt to put us down such a big margin.”
As the first half was coming to a close, Bay Port got key contributions from Emma Krueger, who knocked down a three from the top of the key, and Raegan McIntyre who had an offensive put-back to extend the lead to 35-16 at the break.
The Pirates delivered the second knockout punch to begin half number two.
Johnson and Krause hit back-to-back bombs and Mady Draak connected on a left-handed, up-and-under layup to give Bay Port its biggest lead of the night (47-19) with 12 minutes remaining.
“I thought we did a nice job coming out of halftime to further our lead,” added Coleman. “The kids kept playing hard and forced Ashwaubenon into some tough shots.”
Reserves played a majority of the closing minutes for both teams as the lead grew to over 30 points.
Both teams have four games left in the regular season before the WIAA playoffs start in just over two weeks time.
Box Score
Bay Port: 35, 35—70
Ashwaubenon: 16, 20—36
Pirates: Krause 12, Johnson 12, Draak 11, Nagel 10, Abel 9, Krueger 8, Arbour 3, Coughlin 3, McIntyre 2.
Jaguars: VanLaanen 9, Schaible 6, Severson 6, Schlader 4, Appleton 3, Kunesh 3, Hansford 2, Marohl 2, Wendorf 1.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here