A sluggish start was almost expected for the Bonduel High School girls basketball team Thursday night, given that the Bears were beset last week with a flu bug that rendered all but three players out of commission.
Equally predictable, though, was Bonduel’s ability to get off the canvas and assert itself as the team to beat in the Central Wisconsin Conference-8.
Trailing a feisty Shiocton squad 9-7 after one quarter, the Bears got serious, shutting out the visitors in the second period and taking command with their signature, swarming defense en route to a 46-31 win.
With the win, Bonduel stayed perfect, improving to 15-0 on the season and 9-0 in the CWC-8.
“I don’t know if we ever dreamt that we’d be 15-0 right now,” Bonduel coach Missy Dowden said. “It wasn’t a very pretty win, but we got it done.”
They got it done despite the lethargic first period and an unremarkable 22-for-44 night at the free-throw line, giving credence to the notion that good teams win even with something less than their A-game.
“We seem to start off slow a lot,” Bonduel forward Lexi Reinke said. “We kind of let them push us around in the first quarter. But we knew we just had to take it to them and play hard.”
Shiocton (10-7, 5-5), which was led by Samantha Schmidt’s 10 points, took its last lead of the night on a driving bucket by Carmen McCarthy with :46 left in the first quarter.
Ultimately, the Chiefs had no answer for the likes of Taylor Weier (11 points, six rebounds), Deanna Zernicke (nine points), Kailee Pedersen (eight points, five steals), Reinke (seven points, four steals) and Jen Dowden (seven points).
Shiocton, which also went scoreless for the first 3:10 of the second half, put together a 7-0 run that brought the Chiefs to within 23-16 late in the third quarter. But two buckets by Pedersen and one each by Weier and Dowden gave Bonduel breathing room and effectively dashed any hopes for a Chiefs upset.
“It was tough, because the girls were getting their legs back after being sick,” coach Dowden said. “I couldn’t really push them in practice because they were still recovering. We have to keep working hard, because teams will be coming after us.
“We have big games with (second-place) Wittenberg (Birnamwood) and (third-place) Weyauwega (Fremont). A reasonable goal for us is to win out in the conference. We’re taking it one game at a time. I know we’ve got Iola (Scandinavia) Saturday. After that, I couldn’t tell you who we play.”
Shiocton (31)
Morack 0 0-1 0, Ca. McCarthy 1 0-2 2, Schmidt 1 8-10 10, Conradt 1 0-0 2, Co. McCarthy 3 2-5 9, Korth 1 0-0 2, Ubl 2 2-2 6.
Bonduel (46)
H. Sorenson 0 0-1 0, E. Sorenson 2 0-0 4, Dowden 2 3-8 7, Reinke 2 3-11 7, Weier 2 7-10 11, Pedersen 3 2-4 8, Zernicke 1 7-10 9.
Shiocton 9 0 7 15 — 31
Bonduel 7 12 7 20 — 46
Categories
