Girls Basketball: Menominee Indian pulls away from Gresham

KESHENA — The Menominee Indian High School girls basketball team used a 19-3 run to end the game to claim a Central Wisconsin Conference crossover matchup against Gresham on Tuesday.

Up 48-43 and giving several starters a breather on the bench, Menominee Indian’s second unit helped the team extend its lead.

The big run started with a bucket from freshman Kaysha Wilber after she grabbed on offensive rebound.

After Gresham sophomore Valarie Cerveny answered with a field goal, Menominee Indian junior Mimi Beaulieu-Morgan delivered two clutch 3-pointers to push the host’s lead to 12 — Beaulieu-Morgan’s first triple turned into a four-point play after she was fouled on her follow through.

Freshman Mariah Fish’s fastbreak bucket pushed the lead up to 14 before the Eagles’ starters returned. Another basket from Beaulieu-Morgan forced a Gresham timeout with 3:22 to play.

“I had a substitution group. We put a man-to-man press on. I think it was down to five points (the team’s lead) and they brought it back up to 12,” said Menominee Indian coach Michael Skenadore on the run. “Those are some of our younger players and we’re really happy for them to get out and get some good time on the court.”

Gresham junior Kaylee Bohm hit a free throw with 3:07 to play, but it was the final point the Wildcats scored in the contest.

Beaulieu-Morgan scored Menominee Indian’s final two points in the contest, capping a 35-point performance. The junior hit six 3-pointers in the game, scoring 17 points in the opening half and 18 more in the final 18 minutes.

The win could be a turning points in the Eagles’ season, as the team had dropped several tight games this season before finishing off Tuesday’s game strong.

“It’s a big confidence boost for us because we’re a team that really gets down on ourselves — not each other, but ourselves. So, once we see that we can do things (closing a game out instead of coming up short) then we go into the next game thinking we’re going to do a lot better because we learned more from the last game,” said Beaulieu-Morgan.

It was a pair of Beaulieu-Morgan triples that helped the Eagles out to a 14-0 lead to start the game.

Gresham responded with 19 of the next 24 points to tie the game with about five minutes to play in the first half. Cerveny led the way for the Wildcats, scoring 12 of those points.

The teams traded buckets over the next couple minutes before Gresham junior Makayla Belongia knocked down three 3-pointers in just over a minute to put the Wildcats up seven, 30-23.

Menominee Indian ended the wild first half on a 8-0 run to take a lead into halftime. Senior Senihseah Wayka hit a triple and converted an and-one opportunity before Beaulieu-Morgan stole the ball and converted a layup in the final seconds of the half.

Wayka and senior Alyssa Corn each finished with eight points for Menominee Indian, while sophomore Alezaha King added seven.

During Menominee Indian’s big runs in each half, Gresham turnovers were a big part of the story.

“They (Menominee Indian) outplayed us in the second half,” said Richard Belongia, who served as the team’s head coach for the game with Newell Haffner home ill. “They didn’t turn over the ball and we did. They put together a good half and we didn’t.

“In the second half, we just made a lot of dumb turnovers. We weren’t really working as a team — we just kind of fell apart,” said Cerveny, who led the team with 20 points.

Belongia added 10 points for the visitors, while Bohm had seven.

Gresham 30 16 — 46

Menominee Indian 31 36 — 67

Menominee Indian (67): Mimi Beaulieu-Morgan 3-3 35, Senihseah Wayka 1-1 8, Kaysha Wilber 0-0 2, Mariah Fish 0-0 2, Alezaha King 3-4 7, Jaylynn Martin 0-0 5, Alyssa Corn 0-0 8.

Gresham (46): Makayla Belongia 1-2 10, Kaylee Bohm 1-2 7, Hannah Cerveny 1-2 3, Destiny Reindl 0-0 6, Valarie Cerveny 0-0 20.

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