Lady Toppers lose to Independence and EPC
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
With players out with injuries and other issues, it was a rough week for the Lady Hilltoppers as they lost both of their most recent basketball outings.
Last week’s first loss was in a non-conference game when they hosted the Indees from Independence on Tuesday, January 7. The second loss was suffered at the hands of the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves in a conference game held in Plum City on Thursday, January 9.
The Hilltoppers are 3-7 overall and 1-4 in the Dunn-St. Croix conference.
Glenwood City hosted Spring Valley on Tuesday, January 14 and travel to Mondovi on Friday, January 17th to take on the Buffaloes.
Independence
In Tuesday’s game against Independence, the offense was slow getting revved up with the Indees missing a lot of shots and the Toppers turning the ball over way too many times.
The Indees held an early 7-2 lead before Bella Rassbach hit from outside the arc at the 9:42 mark. This was followed by a steal from Kassidi Thompson that lead to a two-point jumper from Delanie Fayerweather at the foul line to tie the game at seven.
Then with seven minutes left in the half, Fayerweather hit a long, base-line jumper for two to take the lead. Maddie Oehlke then added one more point from the free throw line before the Indees got on the board again with two under the basket.
About a minute and a half later, it was Oehlke again, this time with a jumper that took its time bouncing in. At this point, the Toppers had a 12-9 lead.
However, over the next two and a half minutes the Indees’ Emerson Pronschinske sank three buckets from outside the arc that were unanswered until Bella Rassbach hit for two under the basket with a minute left in the half.
The Indees added one more basket before the end of the half to take a six-point, 20-14 lead into the locker room.
Total domination by the Indees was how the second half started.
Twenty-one unanswered points is what the Indees started the half with as turnovers continued to plague the Lady Toppers.
It wasn’t until the seven-minute mark that the Toppers finally scored in the second half. At this point they had a run of their own, scoring ten points.
Now with the score 24-41, Independence got on the board again with two and a half minutes left in the game. The Toppers quickly followed with a jumper from Fayerweather.
At the 1:50 mark, Kendall Schutz sank two from the charity stripe. The Indees finished off the game with one from the free throw line and one from the floor with 30 seconds left. That was all she wrote as the scoring ended for the game. The Indees left Glenwood City with a 46-28 victory.
“I don’t know what to say, I thought we were going to come out and play good,” commented a frustrated GC head coach Dean Fayerweather. He went on to say that minus some starters (Delanie is back but not to full playing capabilities), not hitting their free throws and not boxing out; fundamentally they just weren’t sound.
According to Fayerweather, their goal was to shut down two of the Indee players – Brianna Truog, who is a good three point shooter, and Ziy Connor. Glenwood City was able to shut down Truog but nobody was able to handle Connor. Connor, who is a least six foot, dominated under the basket with 20 points.
Fayerweather concluded, “It was frustrating, we’ll come back in tomorrow and work on stuff. It’s a game and hopefully the girls will learn something from it.”
Glenwood City (28)
FG-FT-F-T: Rassbach 2-1-1-6, Oehlke 1-3-3-5, Ullom 0-0-1-0, Thompson 1-0-4-3, Mendez 1-2-1-4, DeSmith 0-0-0-0, K. Schutz 1-2-2-4, Strong 0-0-0-0, Fayerweather 3-0-1-6, Buttles 0-0-0-0. Total 9-8-13-28.
Independence (46)
FG-FT-F-T: Taylor 0-0-0-0, Back 0-0-1-0, Pape 0-1-1-1, A. Pronschinske 2-0-0-4, Pyka 0-0-0-0, Truog 1-0-4-2, Ives 0-0-1-0, Perry 0-0-2-0, E. Pronschinske 5-2-2-17, Pietrrek 1-0-0-2, Connor 8-4-2-20. Total 17-7-13-46.
Glenwood City 14 14 — 28
Independence 20 26 — 46
3-point goals: Glenwood City: Rassbach, Thompson. Independence: E. Pronschinske 5.
Elmwood/Plum City
On Thursday, the Lady Toppers played hard but were still down two starters (Makiah Schutz is still out and Yazmin Mendez suffered a concussion in Tuesday’s game) the results were not good as they lost this conference game to the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves.
At the end of the first half, the Wolves were ahead by ten points, 23-13. The second half had the Wolves outscoring the Toppers 17-11 for the final score: Toppers 24, Wolves 40.
Coach Fayerweather took the blame for some of the loss stating, “My coaching error cost us when I failed to get Maddelyn Oehlke out in the first half with foul issues. This coaching mismanagement forced me to sit Maddelyn with about four minutes to go in the first half and the first eight minutes of the second half.”
Fayerweather went on to say that she played a good defensive game against the Wolves post, Maggie Glaus, who was held to just five points.
As a team, Fayerweather thought that they played good defense against the Wolves. However, Elmwood/Plum City took advantage of its open shots and knocked them down. The Wolves were also 14-for-15 from the free throw line. Fayerweather credited the Wolves for playing a good all-around game.
He concluded by stating, “The ladies need to keep their heads up and we will do fine when our three starters return and we are healthy again. So far this season, injuries have been an issue.”
The Wolves have an overall record of 5-4 and 3-2 in conference play.
Glenwood City (24)
FG-FT-F-T: Rassbach 2-0-0-4, Oehlke 2-3-4-7, Ullom 1-0-1-2, Thompson 1-0-5-3, K. Schutz 0-2-0-2, Strong 0-0-1-0, Fayerweather 2-2-1-6, Buttles 0-0-0-0. Total 8-7-12-24.
Elmwood/Plum City (40)
FG-FT-F-T: McDononugh 3-0-2-7 Feuker 1-0-2-4-4, Glaus 1-3-3-5, Kern 2-0-0-5, Baier 0-0-2-0, Blanford 4-9-1-16, Seipel1-0-2-3, Parker 0-0-0-0, Krogstad 0-0-0-0. Total 12-14-14-40.
Glenwood City 13 11 — 24
Elmwood/Plum City 23 17 — 40
3-point goals: Glenwood City: Thompson. Elmwood/Plum City: McDononugh, Kern, Seipel.