Oconto Falls girls basketball team eases to NEC win over Marinette

The Oconto Falls High School girls basketball team dominated from start to finish during a 60-22 North Eastern Conference win over Marinette on Jan. 23 in Oconto Falls.

Facing a win-less team, Oconto Falls wanted to set the tone early. The Panthers did so with their defense, using a swarming man-to-man defense to create several turnovers.

On the offensive end, Oconto Falls didn’t shoot the ball great, but was persistent in tracking down missed shots, and it led to several second-chance looks and buckets.

“We knew we were the better team coming in. I think they were 0-15 coming in,” said first-year Oconto Falls coach Tim Solarek. “Sometimes as a coach, these are the games that scare you. Are we gonna go through half the motions and still win by 15, or are we going to come out and go hard? That was the challenge I gave to them in the locker room, is ‘Let’s not pick up any bad habits, let’s not be doing something that we don’t practice.' So that was kind of our mindset coming in.”
Marinette hit a 3-pointer on its first offensive possession, but Oconto Falls’ defense settled in shortly after, not allowing another point until about six minutes later.

During that timeframe, the Panthers scored 15 points. Alexis Euclide, Amelia Rice and Ashlyn Allen hit 3-pointers during the stretch, and Hailey Peitersen converted a three-point play.

“We really focused on getting in the mindset that we were the better team and that we really had to come out strong and not play down to their level,” said Peitersen of how the team set the tone early on. “We just had to go get them right away from the start.”

“We just focused on what we needed to do — running our plays the right way, making sure that all our techniques were right and that’s what we worked on,” said Euclide. “We knew it was one of the lower teams that we were playing (from the conference), so we knew we needed to come out strong because you can’t ever hold back on a team.”

Both offenses went cold over the next several minutes before the Panthers ended the first half with a flurry.

Up 21-9 with under five minutes to go, Peitersen hit a triple to spark the hosts. She ended up scoring 10 points during an 11-4 run.

Oconto Falls kept its foot on the gas to open the final half, scoring the first 14 points to make it a 46-13 game.

The Panthers coasted to the win from there, emptying the bench and getting some quality minutes from the girls off the bench. Ten different Oconto Falls players scored in the contest.

Peitersen led the Panthers with 17 points. All four of her free throw attempts came on and-one chances.

Euclide tallied 14 points, while Rice had 10. The duo combined to score the team’s first 14 points in the second half.

Marinette 13 9 — 22

Oconto Falls 32 28 — 60

Oconto Falls (60): Alexis Euclide 2-5 14, Tori Hutchinson 1-2 1, McKayla Goebel 1-2 1, Morgan Kowalczyk 0-0 5, Hailey Peitersen 1-4 17, Ashlyn Allen 0-0 3, Autumn Magnin 0-0 3, Jaden Reed 0-0 4, Amelia Rice 1-2 10, Brenna Morrissey 0-0 2.

Marinette (22): Amara Smalls 0-2 2, Samantha Pieper 1-4 4, Jamie Scully 0-0 2, Hannah Chenier 0-0 7, Lindsey Wingender 1-2 4, Matti Renikow 0-2 3.

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