Eleva-Strum securely holding onto No. 1 spot in state, unbeaten record
When you're on top in sport, it's up to your opponent to knock you down. That's the nature of it. And to do so, they have to give their best effort in order to beat the best.
No. 1 ranked Eleva-Strum knew they were going to get that effort against a very good Independence/Gilmanton (12-4 overall) squad in Independence last week Thursday, Jan. 15. That's why it didn't phase them that Cardinals found themselves trailing 27-24 at halftime after I/G's Rielynn Sheahan sank a corner trifecta.
Still, no panic.
"We knew defensively we had to do a better job on our rotations in the second half than we did in the first." E-S head coach Dave Hazuga said. "And we knew we had to match their energy as well, the way they were playing. And so long as we knew what the answers were we could fix things and play better in the second half. That's what I like about this team so much is their confidence in themselves, in what they're doing, in sticking with the gameplan and doing that when they had to. It's a confident team and there's room for their confidence to grow the rest of this season."
Eleva-Strum immediately went on an 8-0 run to start the second half, pushed their lead to double digits thanks to some serious defense that held the Indee Panthers' leading scorer Arabella Kniseley scoreless and their second leading scorer Nora Schrank to just four points and the whole team to just eight points in the second half, and led to an eventual 52-37 win.
E-S's Maddea Brown led all scorers with 22 points. As teams focus in to try and stop the Cards' leading scorer Avery Glenz, Brown has stepped up her scoring in recent ballgames. She sank five of the Redbirds' 10 three-pointers in the contest compared to the Indee Panthers' four.
Despite trailing at halftime and playing with the target of a No. 1 ranking on them, Brown said the team took their situation calmly at halftime and were ready to change things in the second half.
"We knew we had to push up our energy to match the way they were playing and stick to our gameplan," Brown said. "We knew we had to play better and we were ready to do that in the second half."
E-S has played a lot of basketball in the last two weeks and general fatigue is just human nature and physics. But the wins are still being racked up by Eleva-Strum, especially on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The Cardinal started the week with a non-conference win over Spencer (4-10) at home 62-35, again using a strong second half effort to keep their distance from the Rockets. Twenty-Four hours later, the Cards crushed Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 57-17 where they outscored the Lancers (8-5) 32-7 in the second half. Eleva-Strum is now 15-0 overall, they have a four-game lead over I/G in the Large Dairyland standings and Mother Nature has given them a well-deserved break until their next contest on Monday, Jan. 26 at home vs. Mondovi (their scheduled game vs. Alma/Pepin on Friday, Jan. 23 was moved to Feb.5.) The Division 5 Bound Wisconsin/Zalesky Sports Poll is as follows:
1). Eleva-Strum
2). Pecatonica/Argyle
3). Stevens Point Pacelli
4). Webster
5). Marshfield Columbus
6). Wisconsin Rapids Assumption
7). Blair-Taylor
8). Lena
9). Owen-Withee
10). Almond-Bancroft
Jasmin Heuer has been back for Fall Creek for the past three games the Crickets have played last week into this week and they've gone 2-1, with one of the losses a tough setback at home to No. 9 ranked Chippewa Falls McDonell last week Friday, Jan. 16 by a 62-57 score. Besides beating Elk Mound in overtime the Crickets also won a non-conference contest at Arcadia on Tuesday, Jan. 20 by a 64-50 score to go back over .500 at 7-6 and hopefully to stay according to head coach Jason Martzke.
"It's still a learning group and as such they will make mistakes a more experience team probably would not as the McDonell game showed," Martzke commented. "We've been competitive in every game we've been in and we learn and grow as a team we can hopefully turn situations to our favor as we did tonight."
Fall Creek played well early on, leading the Raiders by 15 in the first half at Wanek Arena. But Arcadia (11-6) rallied to cut their Crickets' lead to five just before halftime thanks to their big 6-0 center Tatum Drazkowski scoring a game-high 23 points. That's when Becca Sturz and Riley Winsand sank back-to-back three pointers to push the lead to double digits again. It stayed that way in the second half, even by much as 21 points, until the final buzzer. Sturz finished with 15 points, Heuer had 14 coming off the bench and Joanna Grossinger had 12 points.
"We're controlling Jasmin's minutes as she gets back in the flow of a full game," Marztke said. "And as the weeks go on and we can get more players back from injury we're ben in good shape with more size and depth."
Osseo-Fairchild faced a fellow one-win team in Black River Falls on Monday, Jan. 19. The Thunder played it close, down only one at halftime 28-27 but the Tigers pulled away in the second half to win 54-43 led by Morgan Kundinger's 14 points. She was named Player of the Game by WHTL 102.3 FM radio which broadcast the contest. O-F also lost last week Thursday, Jan. 15 at Blair-Taylor (13-3) 60-21. The Thunder (1-14) are scheduled to play at Melrose-Mindoro Friday, Jan. 23. If not due to the extreme cold weather their next game is against Indy/Gilmanton at home on Jan. 29.
Augusta lost a close contest at home Friday, Jan. 16 to Melrose-Mindoro 66-59 despite having three players in double figures led by Stella Zank's 15 points, 14 from Cecelia Schroeder and 12 from Brooklyn Krueger. That's because the Mustangs' Anna Radcliffe led all scorers with 32 points and 11 rebounds and fellow Mel-Min (6-7) senior Cooper Zeman finished with 19 points. Laney O'Brien led Augusta with eight rebounds and six assists. The Beavers (3-11) also dropped a league contest 78-46 at home to Independence/Gilmanton on Tuesday, Jan. 20. Their next game is supposed to be Friday at Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran. If they do not play that one then next for them will be a non-conference contest at Lake Holcombe (3-9) on Monday, Jan. 26 with a home contest vs. Alma/Pepin taking place Thursday, Jan. 29
Girls Basketball
West Cloverbelt
Team W-L
Chippewa Falls McDonell 8-0
Eau Claire Regis 6-1
Bloomer 5-3
Elk Mound 5-3
Fall Creek 4-4
Cadott 2-6
Stanley-Boyd 1-6
Thorp 0-8
Last Week's Games
Tuesday, Jan. 13
Bloomer 52, Cadott 29
Fall Creek 58, Elk Mound 57 (OT)
Eau Claire Regis 79, Thorp 19
Chippewa Falls McDonell 56, Stanley-Boyd 48
Friday, Jan. 16
Elk Mound 58, Cadott 35
Chippewa Falls McDonell 62, Fall Creek 57
Bloomer 81, Thorp 30
This Week's Games
Thursday, Jan. 22
Elk Mound at Bloomer
Thorp at Chippewa Falls McDonell
Cadott at Eau Claire Regis
Fall Creek at Stanley-Boyd
Next Week's Games
Tuesday, Jan. 27
Cadott at Fall Creek
Bloomer at Chippewa Falls McDonell
Elk Mound at Eau Claire Regis
Stanley-Boyd at Thorp
Large Dairyland
Team W-L
Eleva-Strum 12-0
Independence/Gilmanton 8-4
Melrose-Mindoro 4-7
Whitehall 3-7
Augusta 2-10
Osseo-Fairchild 0-11
Small Dairyland
Team ` W-L
Blair-Taylor 11-2
Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 7-4
Cochrane-Fountain City 6-4
Alma/Pepin 5-7
Lincoln 5-7
Last Week's Games
Monday, Jan. 12
Whitehall 59, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 53
Independence/Gilmanton 54, Lincoln 41
Eleva-Strum 55, Melrose-Mindoro 36
Augusta 62, Osseo-Fairchild 46
Alma/Pepin 44, Cochrane-Fountain City 38
Tuesday, Jan. 13
Eleva-Strum 66, Blair-Taylor 50
Cochrane-Fountain City 48, Whitehall 43
Thursday, Jan. 15
Whitehall 50, Alma/Pepin 47
Melrose-Mindoro 66, Augusta 59
Blair-Taylor 60, Blair-Taylor 21
Eleva-Strum 51, Independence/Gilmanton 35
Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 48, Lincoln 39
This Week's Games
Monday, Jan. 19
Independence/Gilmanton 64, Cochrane-Fountain City 47
Tuesday, Jan. 20
Eleva-Strum 57, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 17
Independence/Gilmanton 78, Augusta 46
Alma/Pepin 54, Lincoln 49
Blair-Taylor 55, Melrose-Mindoro 42
Cochrane-Fountain City 55, Whitehall 41
Thursday, Jan. 22
Alma/Pepin at Whitehall
Friday, Jan. 23
Lincoln at Cochrane-Fountain City ppd.
Augusta at Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran ppd.
Independence/Gilmanton at Blair-Taylor ppd.
Osseo-Fairchild at Melrose-Mindoro ppd.
Eleva-Strum at Alma/Pepin ppd.
Next Week's Games
Monday, Jan. 26
Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran at Cochrane-Fountain City
Tuesday, Jan. 27
Whitehall at Melrose-Mindoro
Thursday, Jan. 29
Alma/Pepin at Augusta
Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran at Blair-Taylor
Independence/Gilmanton at Osseo-Fairchild
Cochrane-Fountain City at Eleva-Strum
Whitehall at Lincoln
