Girls Basketball: Fast start propels Gillett past Suring

Strong defense leads to easy buckets for Tigers
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

GILLETT — Fast starts to the first and second half helped the Gillett High School girls basketball team to a convincing 57-32 Marinette & Oconto Conference victory over Suring on Thursday.

Gillett opened the game on a 19-4 run before sealing up its win with a 15-4 run to start the second half. It was a strong Tigers’ defense that led to some easy looks on the offensive end during both runs.

The hosts forced turnovers early and often, with Suring not attempting a shot until over four minutes into the contest. By then, Gillett already held an 8-0 lead, with junior Aubrey DeBauch scoring six of the points.

DeBauch added her fourth field goal to make it 10-0 before Suring junior Kylee Stelzer converted the visitor’s first shot at the 11:52 mark of the opening half.

Gillett junior Karissa Schaal and sophomore Macy Franti each knocked down a pair of free throws before senior Sydney Young buried a 3-pointer to make it 17-2. After a basket by Suring junior Paige Krueger, Gillett senior Camryn Long hit a shot to make it 19-4.

“We came out and we were flowing together. We had good passes, good looks — we hustled, found the open spots. Just everything clicked tonight,” said DeBauch.

“(Gillett) definitely learned that when we drive, if they can stop it and trap it, we couldn’t handle their pressure really well,” said Krueger. “Once they figured that out, it was kind of hard for us to break it. We also looked back at their game, when we played them the first time (a 41-40 Gillett win on Dec. 14) and we tried to focus on what we did in that game instead of focusing on what we could do in this one. We kind of got caught up in their old defense instead of what their new one and trying to fix that in-game was kind of hard for us.”

The teams traded buckets for the rest of the first half, with Gillett taking a 29-11 lead into the break.

Gillett was able to up its lead to 29 about eight minutes into the second half after its 15-4 run.

This time, it was Schaal that led the way for the Tigers, scoring 11 of the points. She hit two 3-pointers and added a three-point play during the stretch.

“Mitch (Woulf, Suring’s coach) is a great coach and he knows how to gameplan. So we showed him something he hadn’t seen,” said Gillett coach Justin Daul, who had his team put on some full-court pressure with lots of trapping that led to steals. “I think we surprised them and I don’t think his girls adjusted well to what Mitch wanted to do. I think our pressure kind of ate them up.”

DeBauch finished with 19 points for the Tigers, while Schaal added 18. No other Tiger had over six points, but six other players contributed points in the win.

The conference clash turned into a free-throw contest for much of the rest of the game. The teams combined to take 27 free throws over the final 10:50 of the game.

It was Krueger and Stelzer that got to the line repeatedly for the Eagles, combining for 18 free-throw attempts in the second half alone. Suring made just 11 of its 26 free-throw attempts as a team.

Krueger led the Eagles with 12 points, while Stelzer had 11.

“Gillett’s a really good team. They came out and did some things we didn’t expect — that they didn’t do against us the first time. What they did has been a struggle of ours this year,” said Woulf. “But as we got more comfortable and confident, we didn’t give up and played until the end, which was awesome to see.”

Gillett, which improved to 11-2 in conference play, has a few days off before it heads to Lena on Feb. 7. Suring will host St. Thomas Aquinas Academy on Tuesday.

Suring 11 21 — 32

Gillett 29 28 — 57

Gillett (57): Sydney Young 0-2 3, Aubrey DeBauch 3-5 19, Karissa Schaal 3-5 18, Ryann Wagner 0-0 2, Brianna DeBauch 1-1 3, Camryn Long 0-0 4, Macy Franti 4-4 6, Serenity Corona 2-2 2.

Suring (32): Jaden Bubolz 1-2 1, Kate Mahoney 1-2 4, Kylee Stelzer 5-8 11, Paige Krueger 4-14 12, Stephanie Huth 0-0 4.

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