Lady Dogs sweep Wolves for second D-SC win
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PLUM CITY — Coming off back-to-back lopsided losses to the conference’s top two teams – Elk Mound and Colfax, the Boyceville girls’ basketball team was in need of a less-challenging opponent and a confidence-boosting victory.
The Lady Bulldogs got both when they traveled to Plum City Thursday, February 1 to square off against the winless Wolves of Elmwood-Plum City for their only contest of the week.
After leading by just a single point at halftime, Boyceville widen its advantage in the second half en route to earning its second Dunn-St. Croix win of the season and the series sweep against Elmwood-Plum City with a hard fought 51-41 triumph.
Playing in the “old tin shed” at Plum City High School can a be challenging mission even for the best of teams. A fact, Bulldogs’ head coach Jay Lagerstrom knows not only as a coach but as a former Bulldog athlete who played basketball there in the mid-1980s.
“Plum City is always a tough place to play so I’m happy for the girls to get the “W,”” said Lagerstrom. “Good to find a way get another win without playing our best ball.”
For the Bulldogs, whose other D-SC win came at home against these same Wolves back on December 19, it was just their second win in the last nine games and third in 2024. Boyceville is currently 2-9 in conference and 8-12 overall after a 3-1 start to the year.
Securing the victory over the 0-17 Wolves was not, however, an easy task last Thursday.
“We struggled to extend the lead throughout the night,” said Lagerstrom. “We just didn’t play good defense and, I think at times, our “want to” was lacking.”
That lack of motivation and “killer instinct” allowed Elmwood-Plum City to hang close throughout much of the game.
Despite eight first-half points by both sophomore Chelsi Holden and senior Cora Leslie coupled with five from freshman Aubrey Malean, Boyceville was ahead by just one point, 25-24, at halftime.
“We’ve shown the ability to play good team defense this year, but it takes everyone working hard and we just didn’t seem to have our heads in the game throughout the evening,” added Lagerstrom.
With their defense struggling, senior Sarah Stoveren provided the Bulldogs’ offense with a spark in the second half. After scoring just a free throw in the first 18 minutes of action, Stoveren netted 11 of her team and game-leading 12 points including a pair of threes in the latter half. Malean added six more points to her tally in the second half to finish with 11 but missed seven free throw attempts that could have added even more to her and the team’s total. Holden and Leslie also finished in double figures with 11 and ten points, respectively.
The Bulldogs did manage to outscore the Wolves 26-17 in the final 18-minute frame to take the ten-point victory.
Boyceville finished the game with 26 rebounds with six going to Holden, five to Malean and four each by Leslie and Stoveren. The Bulldogs also came away with 22 steals led by eight from senior Hannah Dunn and another four each by Holden and Malean.
Free throw shooting continued to be the Bulldogs’ Achilles Heel as the ladies made only 15 of their 29 attempts.
“We made the shots we needed to late in the game and with some better defense got the stops we needed to win,” Lagerstrom stated.
“We could have stretched the lead by a lot if we would have shot our free throws better, but we had a rough night there as well,” he concluded.
Brittany Bechel finished with nine points and Hailey Webb tallied eight points to led the Wolves who finished 5-for-10 at the charity stripe.
Boyceville hosted Glenwood City in the annual “Coaches vs. Cancer” game Tuesday and will take to the road for games at Mondovi this Friday, February 9 and next Monday, February 12 in Alma against Pepin/Alma. The Bulldogs host Durand-Arkansaw February 15 in the conference and regular-season finale.