Lady Mounders lose to West Salem, then maul Melrose-Mindoro

It was a tale of two different games when the Elk Mound girls lost 59-30 to the West Salem Panthers Dec. 26, then came back a day later to score an easy win over the Melrose-Mindoro Mustangs 72-43. Both games were played in West Salem as part of a holiday tournament.

West Salem

The Panthers started the game with a 7-0 record and were 4-0 in Coulee Conference play. The game was close through the first quarter as the Mounders were down 11-7 but they couldn’t muster a lot of offense in the second quarter and were behind 28-11 at the intermission. Elk Mound actually outscored WS in the third, 12-11with Riley Radtke draining a pair of triples, Sarah Winchester adding a deuce and a trey and McKenna McVey knocking down a free toss. But they couldn’t put a run together in the final eight minutes while the Panthers poured in 20 points resulting in the 19 point difference.

“West Salem is a very good team and their physicality gave us a lot of problems,” Mounder coach Jordan Kongshaug said. “They exposed a lot of our weaknesses and I think it was a good learning experience for our kids.They realize what we need to get better at if we want to reach the next level.”

Winchester finished with nine points to lead the Mounders and added four steals defensively. Radtke and Waive Melgaard both scored six points while McVey had a team leading 10 rebounds.

WEST SALEM (59)  H. Gilster 6-1-1-14, Ji. Olson 3-4-5-10, G. Griffin 4-2-4-10. M. Latos 4-0-0-8, A. Niemeier 2-3-7-7, L. Jacobson 1-3-4-5, Ja. Olson 1-0-0-2, H. Dutton 1-0-0-2, S. Peterson 0-1-2-1

ELK MOUND (30) Winchester 4-0-0-9, Radtke 2-0-0-6, Melgaard 3-0-0-6, A. Weber 1-0-0-3, McVey 0-2-4-2, H. Cedarblade 0-1-2-1, K. King 0-1-2-1

THREE POINTERS: Radtke 2, Weber 1, Winchester 1

Melrose-Mindoro

McVey found her groove against the Mustangs who were 3-2 in the Large Dairyland Conference and 3-5 overall, as she hit all 10 of her shot attempts in the lane, scoring 20 points to lead the Mounders while grabbing eight rebounds in the game. The Mounders poured in 23 first quarter points for a 14 point lead with 10 coming from McVey and eight by Winchester, and they upped the margin to 24, leading 41-17 at the half. They continued to score points quite easily as they increased the lead to 37 points by scoring 21 more in the third including six from McVey and five each by Elizabeth Fasbender and Megan Krall before finishing off the lop sided win.

“I thought we rebounded nicely against M-M,” Kongshaug said. “Rather than feel sorry for ourselves after the previous loss, we played with a lot of energy. We aggressively attacked the rim early on and we were able to create a lot of turnovers on defense,” he added.

Fasbender ended up with 11 points while Winchester and Krall also finished in double figures with 10 points each. Radtke collected six rebounds while Fasbender and Allie Weber each dished off four assists and Winchester came up with five steals.

ELK MOUND (72) McVey 10-0-1-20, Fasbender 4-2-3-11, Winchester 3-4-4-10, Krall 4-0-0-10, Melgaard 3-1-3-7, Radtke 1-3-8-5, King 2-0-0-5, Weber 0-2-2-2, E. Winchester 1-0-0-2

MELROSE-MINDORO (43) K. Dunn 6-1-2-14, D. Lockington 3-3-6-9, K. Anderson 1-2-2-4, A. Morabito 1-0-0-3, M. Jones 1-1-2-3, J. Paisley 1-0-0-2, S. Johnson 1-0-0-2, K. Kirchner 0-2-3-2, J. Ponterio 0-1-2-1

THREE POINTERS: Krall 2, Fasbender 1, King 1, Dunn 1, Morabito 1