EM girls stampede past Altoona, Elmwood/Plum City
By Cara L. Dempski
ELK MOUND — Coach Jordan Kongshaug and his team of Mounder girls came off a nice holiday break win at Arcadia with plenty of momentum.
It showed in the team’s first trip onto the home hardwood January 2, when Elk Mound faced Altoona’s Railroaders in a non-conference contest. The Mounders slapped down the Lady Rails 62-33 before turning their attention to Dunn-St. Croix play.
Elk Mound faced the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves in another home game January 4. While the team did not play with the same zest as the Altoona game, the Mounders still came away masters of the Wolves after a 51-34 victory.
The ladies played for a third straight time at home when they faced Glenwood City January 9, but then are headed to Mondovi January 12. The girls will have nearly a week off before heading to Durand to face the Panthers January 18.
The Mounders are currently 3-1 in the D-SC, and have an overall record of 9-2.
Altoona
In the world of physics, there are two types of energy: potential and kinetic. In simple terms, potential is the energy stored by an object due to where, or what, it is; kinetic energy is that potential made motion.
Rather like a basketball team in warmup versus the game.
The Elk Mound girls were an excellent example of this facing Altoona at home January 2. The floorboards fairly vibrated with energy, which the Mounders unleashed on the Railroaders for a 62-33 win.
Coach Kongshaug was pleased with the game.
“I can’t complain, really. The kids, for a good couple weeks, have played with great energy. Obviously, there’s always things we can get better at, but overall, from where we were earlier in the season until now. I’m proud of the kids,” he said afterward.
The Elk Mound ladies gave the coach plenty to be proud of, with a bold defensive press that kept the Lady Rails on their toes. Kongshaug admitted pride in his team for buying into the benefits a good defense provides on both sides of the ball.
In fact, Altoona could not get on the board until nearly four minutes into the game, when they finally put a stop to the Mounders’ 10-point opening run.
The home team led the game by 21 at halftime, but a more relaxed Railroader team came out of the locker room for the final half. The Mounders raced out to a 27-point lead to open the second half before the Altoona girls got their feet under them and started scoring.
Sadly, the visiting ladies could not keep up, giving Elk Mound the W to lift the team to 8-2 overall.
Morgan Radtke came away from the contest with 20 points, while senior Allie Weber’s outside shooting gave her 18. Hannah Cedarblade put up 10 points, Mary Tamke and Hailey Blaskowski were good for three each, and Kayla Bridges, Crista Sweeney, Victoria Fasbender and Alana Plaszcz each scored two.
Altoona’s Kate Harris and Izzy Hendricks led the Rails with seven points each.
ALTOONA 33, ELK MOUND 62
Altoona………………………………….14 19 — 33
Elk Mound……………………………..35 27 — 62
TEAM STATISTICS (FG-FT-F-T)
Altoona (11-7-15-33) — A. Varsho 1-0-3-2, D. Henricks 0-2-2-2, K. Harris 3-0-3-7, E. Mickelson 1-0-5-3, O. Lang 2-0-0-6, I. Hendricks 2-3-0-7, K. Wiggins 2-2-2-6.
Elk Mound (20-18-12-62) — M. Borofka 0-0-2-0, H. Cedarblade 3-4-1-10, A. Weber 6-2-2-18, B. Plaszcz 0-0-1-0, A. Plaszcz 0-2-0-2, H. Blaskowski 0-3-1-3, V. Fasbender 1-0-0-2, M. Tamke 1-1-0-3, M. Radtke 8-4-3-20, K. Bridges 1-0-1-2, C. Sweeney 0-2-1-2.
THREE-POINTERS
A — K. Harris 1, E. Mickelson 1, O. Lang 2; EM — A. Weber 4.
Elmwood/Plum City
After the white-hot energy the Mounder ladies displayed on the court against Altoona two days earlier, it was maybe a bit worrisome to their coaching staff when the team had difficulty getting shots to go in at times.
Coach Jordan Kongshaug admitted his team did a nice job of moving the ball in Elk Mound’s January 4, 51-34 win over Elmwood/Plum City, but said the girls struggled to hit scoring shots.
“We had a couple of nice spurts,” he said. “Elmwood/Plum City played extremely hard, but we made enough plays to come out on top.”
The Lady Mounders carried a 15-point advantage into the halftime break, but barely managed to edge the Wolves out in the second half scoring stats with just 23 points to Elmwood/Plum City’s 21. Elk Mound junior Morgan Radtke led the game with 18 points.
Other Mounder girls chalking up points for the team were Allie Weber with nine, Crista Sweeney and Madysen Borofka with eight apiece, Kayla Bridges with four, and Hannah Cedarblade and Hailey Blaskowski with two points each.
The Wolves’ leading player was Lexi Diesing with nine points.
ELMWOOD/PLUM CITY 34, ELK MOUND 51
Elmwood/Plum City………..……13 21 — 34
Elk Mound…………………………28 23 — 51
TEAM STATISTICS (FG-FT-F-T)
Elmwood/Plum City (11-9-10-34) — A. Peterson 2-0-1-5, K. Feuker 2-0-3-4, T. Whipple 0-0-1-0, R. Rupakus 3-1-1-8, L. Diesing 2-5-1-9, E. Funk 2-1-1-6, H. Feuker 0-2-2-2.
Elk Mound (23-4-14-51) — M. Borofka 4-0-2-8, H. Cedarblade 1-0-1-2, A. Weber 4-0-1-9, A. Plaszcz 0-0-1-0, H. Blaskowski 1-0-1-2, M. Radtke 8-2-3-18, K. Bridges 2-0-2-4, C. Sweeney 3-2-4-8.
THREE-POINTERS
EPC — A. Peterson 1, R. Rupakus 1, E. Funk 1; EM — A. Weber 1.