Girls Basketball: Shawano overcomes slow start in playoff win

SHAWANO — The Shawano Community High School girls basketball team ramped up the intensity on defense to overcome a slow start to a Division 2 regional quarterfinal playoff game against Antigo on Tuesday.

Sixth-seeded Shawano held 11th-seeded Antigo scoreless during an eight-minute stretch between the end of the first half and start of the second half and then was able to cruise to a 46-28 victory.

“We were just second-guessing ourselves on defense and really offensively too — we became really passive. We missed a couple layups and then nobody wanted to shoot,” said Shawano coach Ryan Koenig on the slow start.

“At halftime, we talked about being aggressive. I didn’t care if we missed 100 layups. We had to keep going, and then good things would happen. In the second half, that seemed to pan out for us.”

With Shawano leading 13-12 with less than three minutes to play in the first half, the hosts used a quick 10-0 spurt to grab the momentum after a back-and-forth first half.

Shawano sophomore Brianna Wright hit a pair of 3-pointers during the run, while junior Taylor Johnson also hit a field goal and junior Rachel Reed knocked down two free throws.

“We realized that we needed to get our head in the game and that it was either win or we’re done,” said Wright. “We knew that we needed to focus because everything was on the line.”

Shawano kept things rolling to start the second half, with junior Avery Dreier leading the charge. Dreier hit a pair of buckets, while junior Lydia Beyer and Wright each added one field goal to run the lead to 19, 31-12, with under 13 minutes to play.

After made baskets or free throws or on a dead ball, Shawano applied full-court pressure, which led to several turnovers and runouts on offense.

If Antigo broke the press, Shawano then clogged the lane with its zone defenses, making the Red Robins work hard for anything in the paint.

Antigo scored the next four points to cut Shawano’s lead to 15, but it never got any closer than that.

“Since the beginning of the season, we knew that we had to be a strong defensive team, more than offensively so we could keep teams to lower-scoring games. That’s what we really focused on tonight,” said Dreier. “We communicated on defense and played well in our zone.”

Johnson hit a triple before Beyer converted a shot to push the lead to 20. After Antigo scored four straight points, Dreier added back-to-back baskets to make it 40-20.

While the Hawks struggled from the free-throw line down the stretch, Shawano was still able to empty its bench and ease to the win.

Dreier led a balanced Shawano attack with 12 points, while Wright had 10 and Beyer nine. Reed chipped in six points.

Shawano will travel to take on third-seeded New London on Friday. The Hawks lost both of their regular-season matchups against the Bulldogs in Bay Conference play.

“We have to be mentally focused, more than we have been all this year,” said Koenig. “This game Friday has to be our best game that we play. We have to take care of the ball and defensively, we have to communicate with each other and be a total team effort for us to beat New London.

Antigo 12 16 — 28

Shawano 23 23 — 46

Shawano (46): Lydia Beyer 2-6 9, Brianna Wright 0-1 10, Rachel Reed 3-4 6, Morgan Weinig 1-2 1, Taylor Johnson 0-0 5, Brooke Theis 1-2 3, Avery Dreier 2-3 12.

Antigo (28): Noelle Tischendorf 0-2 2, McKenzie Schroepfer 1-2 4, Lily Nicholson 2-2 4, Brynn Devore 0-0 3, Lily Nagel 2-4 4, Lonna Weix 1-2 3, Greta Parsons 2-2 8.

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