E-S, Fall Creek still chasing league titles

The chase is still on and the race is still running for Eleva-Strum and Fall Creek's prep girls' basketball teams

Both squads are trying making the finish line of a championship in their respective conference before their rivals do but it hasn't been easy.

No. 9 ranked Fall Creek was brought back into a tie with Chippewa Falls McDonell atop the Western Cloverbelt Conference after Tuesday, Feb. 11's upset loss by the Crickets at McDonell 59-56. Regis, 17-5 overall, has a half-game lead in the WCC standings but has completed their conference schedule. FC concludes their WCC schedule this Friday, Feb. 14 vs. Cadott (9-13) at home and needs to win to claim a share of the league title. McDonell, 13-9 overall, is at Thorp (1-18) on the same date.

The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak for the Crickets, 16-5 overall, which included last week's 77-57 win at home over Bloomer on Thursday, Feb. 6. FC won despite the fact the Blackhawks (12-9) had four players in double figures led by Brooke Petska's 16 points. FC plays its last non-conference game Monday, Feb. 17 at Colfax (15-5) before the Cloverbelt Crossovers next week.

E-S started out last week with a big win on Monday, Feb. 3 at Cochrane-Fountain City, leader of the Small Dairyland, by a 49-34 score. The Cardinal flew out to a big lead in the first half at 30-12 and their defense kept the Pirates, 13-8 overall, at bay in the second half led by Avery Glenz's 18 points. Aliza Kulig scored 12 points for E-S and Avaya Zwiefelhofer finished with nine while leading the team in rebounding with 11. Kulig had a double-double with 10 rebounds and Glenz had three assists and Avery Spanberg had four steals. C-FC had just one player in double figures, their top scorer Kaelyn Comero with 13 points.

Unfortunately the tables were turned for the Rebirds 24 hours later in Independence as they were the victim of a strong defensive performance in a 42-30 loss to Indy/Gilmanton. Central led 17-15 at halftime but were held to just 13 points in the second half and radio station WHTL 102.3, broadcasting the game, gave all five Indee Panther starters their Player of the Game designation for their effort in shuting down the Cards. Glenz had 13 points but no one else was in double figures as E-S was both outrebounded by I/G 43-23 and had 18 turnovers to the Indee Panthers 10.

This win, along with a 56-47 win at Osseo-Fairchild on Feb. 3 and a win Tuesday, Feb. 11 over Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 51-40, puts Indy/Gilmanton, 18-3 overall, a game ahead of the Cardinals in the Large Dairyland standings. Hailie Knudtson led the Thunder with 13 points against I/G, followed by teammate Kara Skoyen's 11 while Myrisa Petis, Kiearra Sieg, and Bryssa Johnson also chipped in points, including a made basket at the final buzzer for Brylie Johnson.

How would Eleva-Strum respond? quite well according to the scorebook as they beat their Tri-County Area rivals Augusta 68-55 on Friday, Feb. 7 at home and Osseo-Fairchild 46-31 at O-F on Monday, Feb. 10 to improve their overall record to 15-6 and keep pace with the Indee Panthers at a game back.

"We lost a tough one (at Indy) last week but our team bounced back well and we've have kept a good attitude and resilliance," E-S head coach Dave Hazuga said. "All we can control is what we do on the court and we have to do is win and do the things we need to do to win and let the rest take care of itself."

Despite a solid effort by the Beavers, 5-16 overall, the Cardinals were control of the contest against their rivals at Central last week Friday, Feb. 7 from start to finish. Glenz was held to just nine points by the AHS defense but picking up the scoring slack was Neeley Lasher with a season-best 19 points, 12 from Kulig and 11 from Zwiefelhofer, who also had 10 rebounds for a double-double. Glenz too had 10 rebounds and had a team-best seven assists while Kulig had five steals. Stella Zank led Augusta with 14 points while Aubrey Korger and Brooklyn Kruger both scored 10 points with Cecila Schroeder finished with eight points. Krueger finished with 10 rebounds and eight assists to lead AHS.

Playing their fourth game in a week made Central sluggish on offense against O-F but Glenz's game-high 23 points was more than enough to provide the scoring they needed to go with a lockdown defensive effort. The Thunder, 2-19 overall, went through long stretches of the ballgame without scoring and only three players for O-F scratched the scorebook with Skoyen scoring 15 points, Sieg 12 and Pettis four points.

"We knew we had to play great on defense because that was going to determine the outcome with our offense struggling and we did a good job," Hazuga said.

Lasher scored six points and Kulig finished with five points as did Spangberger. Lasher led the team in rebounds with 11 while Glenz had 10 for a double-double. She leads the Large Dairyland in scoring at 17.4 points per game. Glenz was also named WHTL 102.3 FM's Player of the Game.

If E-S can hold serve against Lincoln (3-18) this Thursday, Feb. 13 and Melrose-Mindoro (12-8), also at home Feb. 18 and at ECIL (10-9) on Friday, Feb. 21, there are opportunities for Indy/Gilmanton to stumble in the next two weeks at Cochrane-Fountain City this Thursday, Feb. 12 and home to Blair-Taylor (15-6) on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and their season finale Friday, Feb. 21 against Whitehall (14-7), also at Independence. The Norse are two games back in the standings while B-T is in the race for the Small Dairyland title with C-FC while Immanuel was dropped out after Tuesday's loss to I/G. Whitehall also beat Osseo-Fairchild last week Friday, Feb. 7 by a score of 72-51 led by Trinity Aasen's 19 points

Like Eleva-Strum, Augusta has a good number of sophomores and underclassmen on its squad but it hasn't shown the same amount of success as the Cardinals so far. Yet this is beginning to change. Despite the losses, the Beavers have played competitively for much of the season, including a 56-39 loss at home to Small Dairyland leading Cochrane-FC on Monday, Feb. 10. And they've had some successes as well, knocking off Western Cloverbelt member Cadott 84-68 in a non-conference contest at home last week Tuesday, Feb. 4. AHS's non-league record for this season is 2-2, which includes a loss to big school New Richmond in a game they had the lead in until the last minute.

Besides conference titles, teams are also playing for advantageous playoff seeds. The WIAA girls basketball tournament brackets will be revealed this Sunday, Feb. 16. (https://www.wiaawi.org/Sports/Winter/Girls-Basketball/News/girls-basketb...)