It’s a game the Gillett High School girls basketball team will want to forget. However, at the same time it’s a game the players can learn from.
The Tigers struggled shooting from the field all night, but were fortunate to force overtime. In the extra session, Coleman hit 7 for 10 from the free-throw line and Gillett was 3 for 8 as the Cougars escaped with a 40-34 victory in overtime in Marinette & Oconto Conference action Monday night in Gillett.
Gillett never led the entire night and had to play catch-up.
“We just played not like us tonight,” Gillett coach Justin Daul said. “That’s not us. … Very disappointed tonight. Very disappointed.”
Gillett hit just one first-half field goal and shot under 10 percent from the field in the opening 18 minutes. For the game, the Tigers hit just 15 for 31 from the free-throw line.
“We caught them on a good night, because most nights they don’t miss those shots,” Coleman coach Jeff Bronson said. “Both teams missed a lot of opportunities, especially from the free-throw line. We were fortunate that when we had chances to makes plays, we did.”
Kaitlyn Schaal led Gillett with eight points, all from the free-throw line. Maya Breed added seven points and hit three of the Tigers’ nine field goals for the game.
Coleman got a game-high 13 points from Mckenzie Kostreva.
Both teams couldn’t buy a hoop in the first half. Coleman led 2-1 after playing 8 minutes and 25 seconds. The Cougars closed out the opening half with an 11-5 lead as the teams combined to make five field goals.
“I would honestly guess we had 20 turnovers in the first half, and to only go down 11-5, you thank your lucky stars, to be honest with you,” Daul said.
Coleman (3-3, 3-1 M&O) jumped out to a 16-7 lead early in the second half before Gillett (2-3, 2-1 M&O) answered with an 8-0 run. Maddie Yatso hit a baseline jumper and Faith Sorlie made a layup to get the Tigers right back into it with 13:33 left in regulation.
Gillett came within two points on five separate times the rest of the second half before Breed nailed a 3-pointer – the only one of the game for both sides – to cut Coleman’s lead to 29-28 with 1:29 left. Taylor Yonker drove to the hoop and was fouled to send her to the line with 58.7 seconds remaining. The Gillett sophomore hit one free throw to tie it.
Both teams had chances to win the game late, but Gillett turned the ball over three times in the final minute to send it to overtime.
Kostreva hit a shot to start the extra session, and Coleman never looked back. With the Cougars up 33-31 and 49.5 seconds left, Kostreva hit 7 of 8 free throws down the stretch. Breed hit a shot to make it 36-34 with 15.7 showing on the clock, but Gillett couldn’t cut the deficit any lower.
“You’ve got to give Coleman credit, they played great defense,” Daul said. “They jumped the line off the top and made it hard for us to start our offense. Once we got past that initial first stretch, we didn’t focus. We didn’t play like us. Sophomores were being sophomores.”
Daul is banking on his girls learned some valuable lessons from the loss.
“They’ve got to group together and become a team,” Daul said. “We’ve been fighting it a little bit here and we’ve got to group together and become a team. From the start of the season it’s, we’ve got to grow up. Here’s a grow-up lesson.”
Coleman (40)
Mayer 2 0-0 4, Marquardt 3 2-5 8, Kostreva 3 7-11 13, Meissner 3 1-3 7, Bieber 1 2-5 4, Styczynski 0 0-2 0, Yoap 2 0-2 4,
Gillett (34)
Yonker 1 3-4 5, Breed 3 0-0 7, Pecha 0 3-10 3, Loberger 2 1-2 5, Schaal 0 8-13 8, Sorlie 2 0-2 4, Yatso 1 0-0 2
Coleman 11 18 11 — 40
Gillett 5 24 5 — 34
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