Gillett Secondary School suffered a case of deja vu Saturday in a season-ending 41-32 loss to visiting Green Bay NEW Lutheran.
The Tigers, fresh off a 65-19 win over Gresham on Friday, lost the WIAA Division 5 girls basketball regional final to NEW Lutheran for the second year in a row.
“We had it, we just couldn’t finish, that is the bottom line,” Gillett coach Justin Daul said. “We came out in the second half, corrected things, took the lead. We were the better team. We just didn’t finish.”
NEW Lutheran coach Nicole Natzke said the key for the Blazers’ victory was moving from a zone defense to a full-court press in the second half, which helped ignite a decisive 12-0 run in the final quarter.
NEW Lutheran (11-14, 4-10 Packerland Conference) led early before freshman Taylor Yonker hit a 3-pointer to give Gillett a 5-2 lead, but the Tigers trailed 8-5 entering the second frame. The margin grew to 12-7 before Taylor Kohls tied the game with a basket with just over two minutes remaining in the half. A layup by senior Amanda Loberger sent the teams into halftime deadlocked at 16.
Five straight points by Kohls, who finished with a game-high 13 points, helped Gillett (17-8, 13-3 Marinette & Oconto Conference) take a 21-16 lead, but the Blazers scored the next six points and led 24-22 after three quarters.
Free throws by junior Maya Breed and senior Maddy Wilbur early in the fourth quarter gave Gillett its final lead of the game.
“I had to take deep breaths and told myself, ‘We really need this,’” Wilbur said.
NEW Lutheran then rattled off a 12-0 run to take command of the game. Yonker stopped the run with a 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 36-29, but the Tigers could not catch up.
Natzke said she was aware of Gillett’s success all season, knowing they could meet again in postseason play like a year ago.
“We watched them a couple of times throughout the season and we were eyeing them,” Natzke said.
Morgan Meerstein and Taylor Natzke led NEW Lutheran with 10 points each.
Gillett sophomore Victoria Loberger said the team will miss the five seniors: Amber Francois, Kohls, Amanda Loberger, Wilbur and Rebecca Wolfe.
“It will be very hard to see five seniors go,,” Victoria Loberger said. “They were a group I looked up to.”
Green Bay NEW Lutheran (41)
Natzke 4 2-6 10, Meerstein 2 5-8 10, Zimmerman 3 2-7 8, Sabel 1 1-2 3, Wilke 4 0-0 8, Puyleart 1 0-0 2
Gillett (32)
Wilbur 1 3-6 6, Francois 0 1-2 1, V. Loberger 0 1-2 1, Yonker 3 0-0 8, A. Loberger 1 0-0 2, Breed 0 1-2 1, Kohls 6 1-1 13, Balthazor 0 0-4 0.
NEW Lutheran 8 8 8 17 — 41
Gillett 5 11 6 10 — 32
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