Lady Bulldogs beat Beavers, bow out to Eagles
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LOOKING to make a pass for Boyceville was Naomi Hillman (#14) while the Beavers’ Orion Thompson (#11) kept a close defensive stance. Hillman had a huge shot in the second half while being guarded by Maisen Gores, Cumberland’s tallest guard. —photo by Amber Hayden
By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
It’s playoff time!
The Lady Bulldogs’ basketball team, ranked seventh, was victorious in the first round of the WIAA Division 4 regional tournament where it knocked out #10 Cumberland, 64-58, in the Dawg House Tuesday, February 25. However, the local ladies fell to second-seeded Unity in round two last Friday, February 28, 25-65, to end the season.
Cumberland
The action started right away last Tuesday when the Beavers of Cumberland scored first.
Not to worry as the Lady Bulldogs immediately added two from Kady Grambow with an assist from Ana Evenson. Evenson followed this up with a three pointer from the top of the arc less than a minute later. Which the Beavers countered with one of their own.
The Beavers pressed most of the game but the Bulldogs quickly brought the ball up court so it wasn’t much of an issue.
As play continued, Boyceville put up eight unanswered points with threes from Grambow and Emma Ouellette and two under the basket from Megan Hintzman after a nice pass from Mya Lagerstrom. The Lady Dawgs now had a 13-5 lead with just over six minutes run off the clock.
The teams then exchanged points for a few minutes before the Beavers went on a seven-point run to pull to within one of the Bulldogs (18-17) at the 6:32 mark. About thirty seconds later the Beavers were charged with a penalty as they tried to substitute a player who wasn’t listed in the scorebook. This resulted in Lagerstrom shooting two free throws (penalty shots) which she converted into two points. The Bulldogs then had possession of the ball and Jensine Boesl was able to drop in two more points under the basket. The Bulldogs were now leading 22-17.
The next several minutes had the teams once again exchanging points. The half ended with Naomi Hillman on the free throw line with 3.8 seconds on the clock. She hit her first bonus shot but failed on the second. The Lady Dawgs took a four-point, 31-27 lead into the locker room at the half.
WOOSH — The Bulldogs’ Kady Grambow (#23) had the perfect spot as she sent the ball up for another three points in the first half of Tuesday’s WIAA Regional game against Cumberland. —photo by Amber Hayden
The second half continued to be a close matchup with the Bulldogs maintaining a slight lead until about half way through when the Beavers knocked down a three pointer followed by two more points to take a 43-42 lead.
Then with back-to-back buckets from Boesl and a drive down court from Ouellette for two more, the Lady Dawgs went ahead and gave themselves a five-point lead, 48-43.
The next few minutes had the Beavers outscoring the Bulldogs 3-1 before the Bulldogs put up eight unanswered points. The last two where perhaps the most exciting of the game when Naomi Hillman drove the baseline and took a fantastic leap to finally beat the Beaver’s six-foot plus Maisen Gores for two. Up until this point, Gores had basically blocked any attempt to score against her. The Bulldogs were now ahead 57-46 with four minutes left in the game.
The remainder of the game had the Beavers pressing hard and committing a lot of fouls in an attempt to get the ball back. From this point on, all of the Bulldog points came from the free throw line. Fortunately for them, their 7-for-14 effort from the line was just enough to hold on to their lead as the Beavers actually outscored them, 11-7 in the final four minutes.
Despite their victory, Boyceville head coach Jolene Bird was critical of their win, lamenting, “We were horrible from the free throw line.”
She continued by saying that life would have been easier if they shot better free throws. She also credited the Beavers for hitting some big shots.
She concluded by saying that, “We played really well at times and we did not play really at times, but it’s a good win.”
Emma Ouellette led the Bulldogs in points with 13 followed by Kady Grambow with 12.
Boyceville (64)
FG-FT-F-T: Ouellette 4-4-1-13, Lagerstrom 1-2-3-5, Hillman 2-3-1-7, Hintzman 1-4-4-6, Boesl 6-1-1-13, Grambow 5-1-2-12, Evenson 3-0-1-8. Total 22-15-13-64.
Cumberland (58)
FG-FT-F-T: Bertelsen 0-0-3-0, Garibaldi 6-2-3-19, Arnes 0-0-0-0, Thompson 5-0-3-10, Gores 7-1-4-15, Jain 0-0-1-0, Brenna 4-0-4-12, Mathison 0-0-0-0, Ranallo 0-2-5-2. Total 22-5-23-58.
Boyceville 31 33 – 64
Cumberland 27 31 – 58
3-point goals: Boyceville: Ouellette, Lagerstrom, Grambow 3, Evenson 2. Cumberland: Garibaldi 5, Brenna 4.
Unity
According to Coach Bird, the Bulldogs struggled from the opening tip off against the Eagles of Unity in Friday’s regional semifinal loss that ousted Boyceville from this year’s playoffs.
“We had a hard time with their size inside and their great mid-range shooting,” said Bird. “Offensively, we did not shoot well from the arc or free throw line and struggled getting many shots in the paint because of their size.”
The Lady Dawgs shot a mere 26% from the line and were just 3-for-16 from outside the arc.
The Eagles easily got out ahead of the Bulldogs and by the end of the first half had a 29-point lead (42-13). The second half wasn’t quite the blowout of the first with the Eagles scoring 23 to the Bulldogs 12. In the end it was a 40-point victory for the Eagles, 65-25.
The Eagles (20-3) went on to win the regional championship the following evening when they defeated Ladysmith 69-32.
Kady Grambow led Boyceville’s scoring with eight points. Unity had three players finish in double digits.
Some final comments from Coach Bird about the season in general: “I don’t think we ended the season with the record we had hope of achieving but I thought the girls battled hard most nights. We will miss our seniors – Emma Ouellette, Naomi Hillman, Meagan Hintzman, Tyra Kostman, and Anna Evenson – and the skill they have brought to the floor this year and our underclassmen will need to put in a good hard summer of work to fill their shoes.”
The Lady Bulldogs ended the year with an overall record of 8-16 and a 4-10 record in the Dunn-St. Croix conference for sixth place.
Boyceville (25)
FG-FT-F-T: Ouellette 0-0-5-0, Dicks 0-0-0-0, Lagerstrom 0-2-3-2, Hillman 2-0-1-4, Hintzman 1-2-1-4, Boesl 0-1-0-1, Grambow 3-0-4-8, Harnish 1-0-0-3, Evenson 1-1-2-3. Total 8-5-16-25.
Unity (65)
FG-FT-F-T: Reed 0-0-2-0, Claude 0-0-1-0, Sorenson 7-4-3-18, Swanson 8-2-0-18, Tilton 0-0-2-0, Smith 0-0-1-0, Stryker 0-0-1-0, Nelson 4-6-1-14, Strange 4-0-5-9, Bader 2-1-0-6. Lowe 0-0-2-0. Total 24-13-20-65.
Boyceville 13 12 – 5
Unity 42 23 – 65
3-point goals: Boyceville: Grambow 2, Harnish. Unity: Strange, Bader.