Regional tournaments for prep girls basketball this week
It's regionals week.
WIAA regional tournaments for prep girls basketball take place throughout the state starting tonight Tuesday, Feb. 20 with first round games.
The regional semifinals are on Friday, Feb. 23 and the finals are on Saturday, Feb. 24. Starting times are all at 7 p.m.
No. 9 ranked Fall Creek (21-3 overall) is one of the top seeds in the Division 4 Eau Claire North Sectional. They have a first round bye and host the winner of the No. 8 seed Unity - No. 9 seed Boyceville (9-15) contest being played tonight. FC will be home Friday for a semifinal match-up. The other part of the bracket has No. 5 Grantsburg at No. 4 Colfax. FC recently beat Colfax (16-8) handily last week 64-40. Unity (11-13) finished with a winning record in a tough West Lakeland Conference led by 5-10 junior power forward Addison McElhone, who is a team leader in scoring, rebounding and assists. Grantsburg (16-8) also played in same West Lakeland Conference finishing third and had three players scoring in double figures and also team leaders in rebounds and assists in senior 5-6 point guard Megan Schafer, sophomore 6-1 center Ruby Rengo and fellow sophomore and six footer Piper Olson at power forward.
(https://halftime.wiaawi.org/CustomApps/Tournaments/Brackets/HTML/2024_Ba...)
Also in D-4 are Osseo-Fairchild and Augusta. The Beavers (3-20) are a No. 10 seed at No. 7 seed Mondovi (14-10) tonight in a first-round match-up which is also in the Eau Claire North Sectional while OFHS (13-11) are at home as a No. 7 seed hosting No. 10 seed Nekoosa in the Wisconsin Dells Sectional.
(https://halftime.wiaawi.org/CustomApps/Tournaments/Brackets/HTML/2024_Ba...).
The young Beaver squad, with so many freshman in starting an reserve roles are facing their first regional tournament. To win they will have to stop the Dunn-St. Croix Conference's leading scorer Ava Gray who averages 16.2 ppg. If they can somehow pull off the upset they will travel to Durand-Arkansaw to take on the No. 2 seed and D-SC champion Panthers (18-5). Durand-Arkansaw already has a win over Fall Creek from earlier this season and the teams could meet again in the sectional semifinals scheduled to be played in Somerset on Feb. 29..
If O-F wins they will travel to Westfield to take on the No. 10 ranked and No. 2 seed Pioneers (21-3). The final state rankings for Division 4 were: 1). Laconia (22-2); 2). Racine Prairie (21-3); Menasha St. Mary's (22-2) 4). Chippewa Falls McDonell (22-2); 5). Bonduel (22-2); 6). Cuba City (20-4); 7). Sheboygan Lutheran (19-5); 8). New Glarus (21-2); 9). Fall Creek (21-3) and No. 10). Westfield (21-3)
(https://www.wissports.net/page/show/8442944-week-13).
Westfield made its first appearance in the polls this week. The Pioneers won the South Central Conference and are led by senior 5-8 guard Carly Drew. Drew, a two-time WBCA D4 All-State selection and bound for Viterbo to play college ball, averages 21.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 3.7 steals per game. Her teammate, junior point guard Haddie Showen, averages nearly 17 ppg. and both players lead the team in rebounding.
The Thunder could face the first place team in the South Central but they will face the last place team in Nekoosa (4-19) in the first round.
In Division 5, No. 14 seed Eleva-Strum (5-18) is at Dairyland Conference rival and No. 3 seed Independence/Gilmanton (17-7). The Indees defeated E-S during the regular season and were runners-up up to top-ranked Cochrane-Fountain City (22-1) in the Small Dairyland. I/G is led by leading scorer Arebelle Kniesely averaging 13.1 ppg. and big center Makiyah Scow who leads the team in rebounding and is second in scoring. The winner gets No. 6 seed Lincoln (13-10) or No. 11 seed Hillsboro (8-16). Like Augusta, Eleva-Strum has a lot of freshmen making their first regional tournament starts.
(https://halftime.wiaawi.org/CustomApps/Tournaments/Brackets/HTML/2024_Ba...)
