Boyceville lady cagers win two of three contests doubling last year’s win total
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BOYCEVILLE junior Sarah Stovern put up this running jump shot during the second half of the Bulldogs November 28 home game versus Gilmanton. Stoveren finished with a dozen points as Boyceville prevailed 72-26 in the non-conference contest.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
In just the first few weeks of the 2022-23 season, the Boyceville girls’ basketball squad has doubled its win total from a year ago.
Showing improvement in many areas particularly in stamina, the Bulldogs continued their winning ways by picking up victories in two of its three contest this past week to improve to 4-1 to start the year.
Boyceville went to 3-0 last Tuesday, November 28 after it battered visiting Gilmanton 72-26 in what was its largest margin of victory in several seasons.
“I’m happy for the girls as they have worked hard and to be 3-0 against teams that all beat us last year it shows improvement, said head coach Jay Lagerstrom of his charges wins over Gilmanton, Independence and Chetek-Weyerhaeuser.
Three days later its was a different story as the Lady Bulldogs fell hard in Durand to the Panthers. Boyceville had trouble handling Durand-Arkansaw’s press and struggled to put in shots as they lost the December 1 Dunn-St. Croix opener 56-19.
To their credit, however, the Bulldogs rebounded to edge Thorp 53-49 in an early Saturday morning, December 3 contest played in the Colfax gym as part of the Colfax Classic which showcased all eight Dunn-St. Croix Conference teams against non-conference opponents.
The Bulldogs were in Amery last night (December 6) and return to the Dog House this Friday, December 9 to host Spring Valley in a Dunn-St. Croix contest. They are in Colfax next Tuesday, December 13.
Gilmanton
In one its best offensive halves in many a season, Boyceville scored seemingly at will when Gilmanton came to town Monday, November 28 as part of a non-conference doubleheader with the boys’ teams.
DRIVING TO THE HOOP for two of her 20 points was Boyceville junior Hannah Dunn during the Lady Bulldogs’ Novmeber 28 home basketball game against Gilmanton. Boyceville won 72-26.
—photo by Shawn DeWitt
Playing the early contest, the Lady Bulldogs ran out to 46-22 halftime lead. Hannah Dunn scored 13 of her game-leading 20 points in that first half. Hailey Hanestad netted a pair of threes and had 10 of her 19 points during that first-half offensive explosion by Boyceville. Rachael Montgomery and Sarah Stoveren also got in on the action as they scored eight and seven points, respectively in the first 18 minutes of action and both finished with a dozen points.
Boyceville stayed hot to start the second half scoring 21 of its 26 points in the first eight minutes and then cruised to the 72-26 win over Gilmanton who scored just four points in that final half of play.
“We brought good pressure in the first half that led to a lot of points, but we got a little lazy in our half court defense which we discussed at halftime and the girls responded by only giving up four second half point,” noted head Coach Lagerstrom.
Boyceville finished with a fine 30-for-58 shooting performance which included five-of-nine from three-point land but still struggled at the charity stripe hitting just seven-of-16.
Emma Lowen led the Lady Panthers with 14 points.
Durand-Arkansaw
The Bulldogs went from all kinds of offense against Gilmanton to nearly none at all when they visited Durand last Thursday, December 1 for the conference opener.
Boyceville found itself trailing host Durand-Arkansaw 34-13 at the break. And things did not improve in the second half. In fact, they got worse.
Although the Panthers scored just 22 points in the final 18 minutes of play, the Bulldogs were only able to put the ball in the hoop three times for six points en route to a 56-19 shellacking.
“We had a rough night offensively, struggled to get into any offense at all. We handled their full court pressure well, but we struggled in our half-court offense,” Lagerstrom said.
“Defensively, we rebounded poorly as they had 24 offensive boards against us, and you just can’t let a good team get that many opportunities,” he continued.
“Games like this will make you better as their one of the top teams around,” Lagerstrom concluded.
Rachel Montgomery finished with nine points to lead the Bulldogs while the Panthers’ Emma Hoyt topped the scoring charts with 20.
Thorp
The Boyceville girls were early risers last Saturday morning as they had an 8:30 a.m. match up with Thorp to tip off the 2022 Colfax Classic which featured all eight D-SC teams taking on a non-conference opponent.
In a close contest throughout, Boyceville held a 28-24 halftime lead over Thorp. Both teams netted 25 points in the second half as the Bulldogs held on to claim the 53-49 win.
Hailey Hanestad provided an offensive spark as she topped all scorers with 17 points including 13 in the first half with six buckets including a three. Rachael Montgomery added 14 for the Bulldogs.
“Another nice win for the girls to move to 4-1,” stated Lagerstrom. “I was worried playing a morning game and coming off our first loss how the girls would play. We started slow, we played fine but missed several open easy shots and could have had a nice lead, but they kept their composure and again pulled out the W”.
Free throw shooting, however, continued to be Boyceville’s Achilles’ heel. The Bulldogs finished 16-for-26.
“We again, as a team, missed too many free throws, nobody individually shot terrible but as a collective group a couple misses each just add up,” Lagerstrom said. “Third game out of five that we’ve gotten to the line over 25 times we just must make more to spread the point differential out a little more.”