Lady Bulldogs earn the win in a nail biter against the Hilltoppers

By Kelsie Hoitomt

GLENWOOD CITY — It was a battle in the late season game against the Boyceville girls’ basketball team and the Lady Hilltoppers Monday night, February 11.

The Bulldogs lost to the Toppers the first go around earlier this season, but they were able to control the ball in the fourth quarter for the 43-40 victory.

 It was a close game that went down to the wire with the score tying several times throughout the second half after fouls were called and free throws were drained by both teams.

The Bulldogs did start the game with a strong lead with the score at 14-4 after the first quarter through the help of two treys by Abbey Bird. They would continue to lead the game after each quarter with the score at 21-18 at halftime and 27-26 after the third.

Almost half of the Bulldogs points scored came from free throws as they were successful with 21 out of 30 attempts. Ten of those 21 scored were from Bird alone.

It was a game of fouls on the other side of the ball as well as the Hilltoppers scored 18 of their 40 points from free throws. As a team they had a total of 33 attempts at the line.

The fouls were called consistently throughout the entire game until the pace quickened in the fourth quarter and things got more intense.

The Hilltoppers scored 14 total points in the final eight minutes and eight of those were from free throws. The Bulldogs also had over half of their fourth quarter points scored from free throws.

Missed free throws and three point attempts that went into the basket and bounced back out was the cause for the Hilltopper’s loss. The Bulldogs were able to take advantage of the missed shots and recovered the ball and run the clock out to end the game.

“With a strong first quarter we were able to hold off Glenwood even through foul trouble and injuries,” said Boyceville coach Jolene Bird. “Both teams spent much of the evening at the free throw line. We just stepped over late too many times and got ourselves caught in poor position.  Offensively we had too many unforced turnovers and not enough offensive rebounding but it was an offensive save on a free throw by April Lake that she tipped back to Kysa Franseen for the bucket that put us in good position to seal a win.”

Bird blew up the court again for the third consecutive game as she scored over half the total points with 24 from ten free throws, two treys and four deuces.

Collecting the rest of the points were teammates Kysa Franseen and Brooklynn Blaser with six each, Kennedy Hellmann, Shyanne Marlett and Katelyn Merten each with two and Alexa Peterson had a free throw.

Senior Hilltopper Janessa Ullom led the team in points with 12 with four baskets from under the net and four free throws. Also scoring were Kelsie Knops with eight, Olivia Weidling with six, Jen Kopacz had five, Kristie Knops had four, Moriah Kuehndorf and Morgan Kadinger each had two and Megan Samens had a free throw.

The Hilltoppers will host the Colfax Vikings this Thursday night, February 14. The Bulldogs play Thursday as well in St. Croix Central.