Big buckets games for Fall Creek hoopsters this weekend

FALL CREEK - A busy week of games for the Fall Creek High School girls and boys basketball teams continues as the Cricket boys team hosts Stanley-Boys in a key Western Cloverbelt Conference showdown beginning at 7:15 p.m. while the girls team has a similar kind of contest this Friday, Jan. 31 at Eau Claire Regis, also beginning at 7:15 p.m.
Both teams come into these contests off non-conference road wins on Tuesday, Jan. 28. The No. 9 ranked FCHS girls team routed Altoona (7-10) 72-37 to improve to 13-4 overall. It was their fifth straight win and ninth in their last 10 games while the boys downed a Whitehall teams with the same 6-6 record going in 59-42. The Crickets outscored the Norse 32-19 in the second half. FC's Corbin Sell had a season-best 20 points and was named WHTL 102.3's Player of the Game. Miles Schmidgall finished with 15 points for Fall Creek, Cullen Kramer had nine points and Josh Wright scored eight. Both Sell and Schmidgall had double-doubles with 10 and 14 rebounds respectively while Jackson Tangley made four assists.
Regis, 15-4 overall, has a half-game lead on the Crickets in the WCC standings and a win by either will provide a big boost to that squad to winning this year's league crown. To do so FC has figure out a way to defend against Regis' all-star sophomore point guard Ella Mae Cooper, who has been able to break down their defenses over the past four times she's played against them either with Regis of Chippewa Falls McDonell who she helped to lead to the WCC title a year ago. Cooper leads the league in scoring averaging 22.2 points per game. Her teammate Carly Borst is second averaging 16.5 ppg. McDonell is a game back at 6-2 but both Regis and FC have won their most recent games vs. the Macks comfortably. Regis routed Thorp 74-14 on Tuesday.
Fall Creek's boys are a game behind Bloomer in the WCC standings and a half-game behind Stanley-Boyd. A win over the Orioles Thursday, Jan. 30 will put them in the mix for the WCC title. S-B, 9-6 overall, topped the Crickets 61-58 in their first meeting and for Fall Creek to win they will have to play stout defense to contain their top scorer Charlie Hoel, who is averaging 16.4 ppg. and Logan Gray who averages 12 ppg. and leads the team in assists. Stanley-Boyd is coming off a 67-53 non-conference loss to Durand-Arkansaw and have lost two straight.
Both Fall Creek hoop squads play this Saturday, Feb. 1 in the Wisconsin Dells at Just A Game Fieldhouse. They will be each taking on Palmyra-Eagle with tip times of 2:30 and 4:15 p.m. The Panther girls are 11-6 while the boys have a 9-5 record.