Area teams looking to overcome injuries, illness as playoffs draw close

Injuries and illness are a part of basketball.

But this is not the time of year to be having them, especially on the high school level

WIAA playoffs are two weeks away and the parings for the regional tournaments which begin with first round action will be this weekend. Overcoming injuries and illness that take out players from carefully set rotations and forcing teams to adjust are a big part of the game at this point like it or not.

No. 1 ranked and undefeated Eleva-Strum had one big advantage over Augusta when the two teams for the second time this season on Tuesday, Feb. 10 in Augusta.

E-S lost senior reserve Cora Gunderson to a knee injury the Friday before in practice. AHS lost starter and top scorer junior Stella Zank to a knee injury during the middle of the game.

Thus, while the Cardinals had time to adjust, Augusta didn't and without Zank's scoring they had little chance of pulling off the upset. E-S won 74-39 to improve to 21-0.

Her injury came midway through the first half when the Beavers (8-13) were hanging tough with the unbeaten Cardinal. From that point onwards, E-S began to pull away, leading 32-21 at halftime and then outscoring the Beavers 42-18 in the second half. Augusta sophomore Laney O'Brien tried to step up as far as scoring goes, finishing with a team-best 15 points. But without Zank, the Cards could focus their defense on junior Kadyn Kirkham, who has proven to be a match-up problem for E-S on defense. She scored 10 points in the first half but none in the second. Cecelia Schroeder finished with nine points for the home team.

Avery Glenz had a big second half for the Cardinal, with a game-high 22-point effort. Also in double figures for E-S were fellow junior Maddea Brown with 14 points, senior Aliza Kulig 13 points (to go with five blocks) and junior Avaya Zwiefelhofer 12 points. Sophomore Brenley Bauer finished with eight points.

This is a bad time to be without Zank as tough games loom for AHS, Thursday, Feb. 12 at Cadott (10-9) and Monday, Feb. 16 at Blair-Taylor (16-5), who clinched the Dairyland Small Conference with a win on Tuesday.

"If Stella is out for any appreciable length of time then we're going to need everyone to step up when it comes to our offense," Augusta head coach Ashlyn Korger said.

The sad thing is the Beavers had everyone step up the past few weeks when it came to defense which helped them win five out of their last six games, including Monday's win at Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran (10-9) by a 54-42 score and at Lincoln (9-12) 59-55 on Friday, Feb. 6. This winning streak along with playing No. 1 helped draw a big crowd to the Augusta gymnasium for the ballgame. AHS started this season from behind, playing competitively but losing their first seven ballgames, until now.,

"Our kids began to start playing defense as a team, started to trust and believe in each other on that side of floor and began to make the plays on D which made the difference between winning and losing," Korger said

Eleva-Strum has been doing nothing but winning this season. Besides Tuesday's win over Augusta, the Cardinals topped Alma/Pepin at home 58-38 back on Thursday, Feb. 5. Like the Augusta game, AHS was slightly ahead at halftime but dominated the second half, outscoring the Eagles (11-10) by a 29-15 margin. Glenz and Brown led the way scoring-wise with 16 points each. Kulig finished with 11 points and Zwiefelhofer grabbed 12 rebounds.

It's not imperative Eleva-Strum finish the regular season undefeated, as they have already clinched the Large Dairyland title for the second season in a row and more-than-likely a No. 1 seed in the tournament. The ultimate goal is to make it to state. But protecting that spotless record does help to keep a certain focus and intensity for the Redbird team as playoffs approach. Especially as the Cards take on No. 8 ranked Blair-Taylor on Thursday, Feb. 12.

"We just want to keep winning and playing well and going undefeated certainly helps our focus to do that," Zwiefelhofer said.

Fall Creek's tough schedule plus early injuries has kept the Crickets from building any momentum this season (the Crickets won four in a row in December but proceeded to lose four of their next five as the year changed over). FC (11-10) hopes to put together a winning streak here at the end as they play Elk Mound and Colfax and their Cloverbelt Crossover game all at home in the next week (Feb. 13, Feb. 16 and Feb. 19). A big 67-56 win at Bloomer (12-7) last week Thursday, Deb. 5, avenging an earlier loss to the Blackhawks and rallying from a 37-33 halftime deficit, was negated by a 71-49 loss to No. 2 ranked Eau Claire Regis on Tuesday, Feb. 10 in a doubleheader game with the boys' team in Eau Claire. The Rambers (19-2) dominated the second half after leading by 10 at halftime 31-21 and the win clinches the Western Cloverbelt Conference title for themselves. Junior point guard EllaMae Cooper hasn't just stepped up but leaped skywards in the Ramblers last few ballgames. Cooper led all scorers with 29 points and freshmen Emma Gardow and the big 6-5 center Evelyn Borcherding both were in double figures scoring as well. Borcherding also had a whopping 17 rebounds and Cooper finished with eight assists.

Osseo-Fairchild (1-20) led Whitehall (7-14) early on in its doubleheader contest with Whitehall on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at OFHS thanks to a trifecta of three-point baskets by Kiearra Sieg. However, the Norse had a big first half run led by sophomore Paige Lisowski's 26 points on their way to an 82-61 win. Lisowski was named Player of the Game by WHTL FM 102.3 for her efforts. She led Whitehall on a 40-15 run after the Thunder led 12-2 from the opening tip. Sieg led O-F in scoring with 15 points and teammates Brylie Johnson and Addison Dunahay both had 10 points each. One sliver lining for the Thunder is that 61 points is the most they've scored in a single ballgame this season. O-F will try again for their first league win this season at Lincoln on Thursday, Feb. 12, against Eleva-Strum at home on Monday, Feb. 16 or their season final next Thursday, Feb. 19 at Augusta.

The girls basketball tournament series bracket reveal will be aired live at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 14 on WKOW 27.2 in Madison, WAOW 9.2 in Wausau, WXOW 19.2 in La Crosse and WQOW 18.2 in Eau Claire, WCFW CW14 in Green Bay and My24 EVTV 24.1 in Milwaukee according to a press release by the WIAA.

Karl Winter and Keegan Hewitt will serve as the hosts of the show, which will feature the announcement and first-round matchups for five divisions of the Tournament Series. They will be joined by Norbert Durst and Deysha Smith Jenkins for analysis.

There are 459 teams entering the post-season tournament that will culminate with the 50th State Girls Basketball Tournament Thursday-Saturday, March 12-14 at the Resch Center in Green Bay, which will be aired and streamed live in its entirety on WIAA State Television Network stations and their websites.

Complete brackets with seeded teams and the first-round regional pairings are scheduled to be available on the WIAA website at www.wiaawi.org immediately following the live announcement of the bracket pairings.