Lady Bulldogs split games to start new year
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The Boyceville girls’ basketball team trailed early in its first two contests of 2023.
While the Lady Bulldogs were able to overcome a first-half, double-digit deficit in Elmwood Thursday night, January 5 and hold on for a 37-34 over host Elmwood/Plum City that was not the case just 24 hours later when they hosted conference leader and unbeaten Elk Mound. Fresh off a huge win over Colfax the previous night, the Mounders battered the Bulldogs 58-19 in their January 6th meeting which was a makeup of a December 16 contest that was postponed due to inclement weather.
BULLDOG Sarah Stoveren (#25) drove to the basket and took this shot during Boyceville’s home game against Elk Mound January 6. The Mounders won 58-19. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
The victory over Elmwood/Plum City provided Boyceville with its first conference win against four losses. Overall, the Bulldogs are an even 5-5 when it began a three-game road swing last evening, January 10, at rival Glenwood City, they go to Mondovi on Friday and will be in Clayton this coming Monday, January 16 to make up a non-conference game that was postponed last Tuesday, January 3 due to bad weather.
Elmwood/Plum City
Boyceville found itself in a big hole at the start of its January 5 game played in Elmwood against host Elmwood/Plum City.
Down 18-6 to start the contest, Boyceville was able to trim its deficit to only four points, 23-19, at the intermission despite hitting just a pair of three pointers, one each by Hailey Hanestad and Sarah Stoveren, and 11 of its 23 foul shots.
Hitting six baskets including its third triple, Boyceville was able to take the lead in the second half and hold on for a 37-34 win even though it connected on just five of its 11 foul shots over the final 18 minutes of play.
“We continue to struggle from the free throw line and could have really stretched our lead by hitting more but I liked the way the girls didn’t fold and continued to battle,” said Boyceville head coach Jay Lagerstrom.
The Bulldogs, who hadn’t played in nearly three weeks, looked rusty especially shooting the ball as they finished just 16-for-34 at the free throw line and made just nine field goals.
Although Boyceville netted only 18 points in the second half it was enough to take the lead and eventually the win as the Wolves scored just 11 points during that span.
“The beginning of the game was hectic and we made some poor passing decisions but once we slowed ourselves down a little and saw the court better, we were able to battle back,” said Lagerstrom. “The girls attacked on the offensive end again and we continue as we have most of the year getting to the free throw line a bunch but were just leaving too many opportunities from there unanswered.”
Senior Rachael Montgomery led the Bulldogs with ten points, all of which came in the second half, Sarah Stoveren netted six of her nine points in the final stanza, Hannah Dunn tallied seven and Hailey Hanestad finished with five, Cambrie Reisimer four and Abby Schlough had two.
Lily Webb and Kali Brunner were the Wolves top scorers with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Elk Mound
In a makeup of a December 16 conference contest that was postponed due to inclement weather, the Mounders whooped up on the Bulldogs winning 58 to 19.
Boyceville looked to keep the scoring low and action slow as it began the contest, which tipped off at 5:45 p.m., with several deliberate passes and a methodical pace on offense.
And it seemed to work, for a short while.
Just six minutes into the contest and the Mounders led just 10 to 5.
But aggressive defensive play helped Elk Mound create turnovers which in turn led to points, many points.
In the final dozen minutes of the first half, the Lady Mounders picked up the pace, outscoring the host Bulldogs 30 to 4 to take a commanding 40 to 9 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
“We started the game okay and kept control of the ball, tried to keep it out of their hands but their pressure after about 5 minutes got to us and we just had too many turnovers to compete well with them,” stated Lagerstrom.
With the large lead, Elk Mound was able to get its bench several minutes of action in the second half which saw less scoring but still had the Mounders putting up 18 points to the Bulldogs 10 for the 58-19 final tally.
Elk Mound finished with seven treys but was just 2-for-8 at the free throw line.
Senior Rachael Montgomery and junior Hannah Dunn led Boyceville in scoring with eight and seven points, respectively. The Bulldogs took twice as many foul shots as the Mounders as they finished 10-for-16 on charity tosses but had just one make from behind the three-point line, that off the hands of Dunn.