Bulldog girls beaten by Mounders and Wolves
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The Boyceville girls’ basketball team’s winless streak grew to eight games as it lost a pair of conference games to top-half squads this past week.
Hosting, then first-place, Elk Mound last Tuesday, February 8, Boyceville did a decent job of handling the Mounders full-court pressure but, was unable to guard against the visitors long-range aerials as it fell 61-29.
Three days later, the Lady Bulldogs traveled to Elmwood to face fourth-place Elmwood/Plum City. Boyceville employed a double-team strategy against the Wolves’ top scorer – Maggie Glaus, holding her to just ten points. But, that plan also opened up the perimeter for the Wolves and their outside shooters took advantage of it, scoring a dozen three pointers en route to 60-26 victory in the February 11 contest.
In both games, their opponents three-point shooting prowess hurt the Bulldogs who surrendered ten triples to Elk Mound and a dozen to E/PC.
Those most recent setbacks put the Bulldogs’ D-SC mark at 1-12 and 1-21 overall.
Boyceville will conclude the regular season this week with a pair of games. The Bulldogs hosted Augusta Monday evening and will then welcome rival Glenwood City for the finale on Thursday which also marks the annual Coaches versus Cancer contest. Boyceville’s only win this season came in a January 14 contest in Glenwood City.
Boyceville will be on the road next Tuesday, February 22 to open the WIAA Division 4 regional tournament when it travels to play Cameron. In rankings that were determined entirely by a computer program, the Bulldogs received the #12 seed while the Comets were ranked 5th.
Elk Mound
While Boyceville handled Elk Mound’s full-court press fairly well, it was the Mounders’ perimeter shooting that took down the host Bulldogs’ in a February 8 D-SC contest.
Elk Mound netted ten, three-point shots including four by freshman Ellie Schiszik in the first half. That helped the Mounders build a 32-15 halftime advantage as they went on to defeat the Lady Bulldogs 61-29.
“I thought we handled their full-court pressure well and got some great looks off the break but didn’t finish our shots like we have to,” said Boyceville head coach Jay Lagerstrom.
“Defensively, we have to do better to get a hand in the face on the perimeter,” he added.
Besides Schiszik’s three-point quartet in the opening half, Brooke Emery and Tori Blaskowski each added a basket from behind the arc to give Elk Mound its 17-point halftime lead.
After a slow start that saw the Bulldogs collect just five points in the first nine minutes of the game off of hoops by Hannah Dunn, Abby Schlough, and a free toss from Cambrie Reisimer, Boyceville’s offense rallied for 11 points in the final nine minutes of that half on a pair of baskets by both Rachael Montgomery and Hailey Hanestad.
After six, first-half triples, Elk Mound sank four more in the second half including a pair by Olivia Schreiber as it put 29 points on the scoreboard in the final 18 minutes of play.
The Bulldogs had trouble keeping pace offensively as it managed just 14 points over that same period as Montgomery scored five more points to finish as Boyceville’s leader with 11 points. Dunn added the Bulldogs only three to finish with five points while Hanestad and Reisimer tallied four each.
Schiszik and Schreiber led the Mounders with 16 and 12 points, respectively.
Boyceville finished 6-for-13 from the charity stripe while Elk Mound was 5-for-12.
Elmwood/Plum City
When you have just one win, sometimes you have to take chances.
Tthat is just what the Lady Bulldogs and head coach Jay Lagerstrom did when they traveled to Elmwood February 11 to take on the E/PC Wolves (7-5, 13-8).
Lagerstrom and Boyceville gambled that shutting down Maggie Glaus, the conference’s leading scorer and rebounder, would give them the best opportunity to beat Elmwood/Plum City.
While the Bulldogs held Glaus to ten points, what they and their head coach didn’t plan for was a tremendous demonstration of long-range shooting by the Wolves.
Elmwood/Plum City knocked down a dozen triples, six in each half, to take a 60-26 win over visiting Boyceville last Friday.
“We took our chance of trying to take away the Glaus girl,” said Lagerstrom. “We did a good job but by doubling her hard we left ourselves vulnerable from the perimeter. They shot lights out from the perimeter.”
E/PC led 35-10 at the break as Boyceville scored just a pair of hoops – a three by Dunn and a conventional hoop form Hanestad – and five free throws in the first 18 minutes.
“Defensively I’ll have to take the blame as Glaus has gave us a lot of problems in the past and they haven’t been a great perimeter team (go figure against us they couldn’t miss),” said Lagerstrom.
Meanwhile, Hannah Forster tickled the twine with a trio of threes for the Wolves who also got a pair of long-range bombs from Halle Gilles and one by Hailee McDonough. While Glaus still ended up with seven points in that opening frame.
Boyceville’s offense improved slightly in the second half as Harper Olson and Hanestad each hit a hoop and a three while Sarah Stoveren turned in a pair of buckets.
But, the Wolves continued to rain down threes. Forster and McDonough added two more treys in the second half with one each by Lily Webb and Glaus as they helped E/PC win by 34 points.
Olson and Hanestad topped the Bulldogs’ scoring chart with eight points each while Stoveren tallied five and Schlough four.
Eight Wolves scored points including three in double figures as Forster led the way with 16 points. McDonough finished with 13 and Glaus got her ten.
“We probably had one of our poorest halves of rebounding in the first half and gave them too many second and third chances, we did better in the second half but have to play both ends full game to win,” he added.
“Offensively, we struggled shooting 24 percent from the floor and 7-for-19 from the line,” concluded Lagerstrom.