The pieces were in place for an upset that the Shawano Community High School girls basketball team could have ridden a long way into the postseason.
Only problem was that Lady Luck took a powder.
The Hawks had state-ranked West De Pere on the ropes for a good portion of Thursday night’s Bay Conference matchup, but the critical buckets down the stretch that ultimately decided the outcome rolled in for the Phantoms and out for Shawano, and West De Pere escaped 51-38.
“It was a great game, great intensity,” Shawano coach Ryan Koenig said. “We did a lot of things really well, but we didn’t defend the lane as well as we could have. And our shots weren’t falling at the end.”
In a nutshell, there was just a bit too much Liz Edinger for the Hawks (6-12, 5-9 Bay Conference), who saw their winning streak snapped at two. Edinger, West De Pere’s sophomore guard, scored 20 of her game-high 23 points in the second half, many of which were of the backbreaking variety after Shawano had edged closer.
“I honestly thought we were going to win,” Shawano’s Morgan Klitzke said. “We had a good start and we were playing well. We just got stuck in some of our transitions and rotations.”
Klitzke did an outstanding job handling the pressure of West De Pere (15-4, 11-2) and led the Hawks with 10 points and five rebounds. Twin sister Megan Klitzke (eight points) was equally cool in the face of the three-quarter-court heat, and helped Shawano break out to a 6-0 lead.
The Phantoms were conspicuous enough, though, bouncing back after five first-quarter points by Hawks center Erika Dunnam and a free throw by Meagan Ward that gave Shawano a 10-5 advantage. West De Pere, whose record includes a season-opening win of 67-4, went on an 11-0 run that gave the Phantoms a 16-10 edge and apparent control of the game.
Someone forgot to tell the Hawks to roll over, though, and before long West De Pere found Shawano nipping at its heels again. A huge 3-point bucket from the left wing by Sydney Schreiber cut the deficit to 22-19 with 1:24 left in the half, and Megan Klitzke’s hoop with 6.2 remaining until intermission made it 22-21.
Morgan Klitzke opened the third quarter with a neat layup on one of her many resolute drives to the rack, giving Shawano its final lead of the night, 23-22. After that, Edinger took over, hitting virtually everything she put up en route to scoring 13 of the Phantoms’ 15 third-quarter points. Trailing 37-32 after three, Shawano spent the rest of the evening watching its upset bid bounce, clang and roll agonizingly off the mark.
“We’ve played really well against some good teams,” said Koenig, whose club gave powerhouse New London a scare in a two-point loss on Jan. 23. “A couple of bounces here or there and we could have 10 wins right now. Our goal is to put ourselves in position to be playing our best ball at playoff time.”
Mission accomplished, it would appear.
West De Pere (51)
Denis 0 2-2 2, Edinger 9 4-5 23, Evans 0 4-4 4, Strick 4 2-4 10, VanVonderen 3 1-1 7, Stefaniak 2 0-1 5.
Shawano (38)
Monfils 1 2-2 4, Mo. Klitzke 3 3-4 10, Me. Klitzke 3 2-3 8, Boda 1 0-1 2, Hokenstad 1 2-5 4, Schreiber 1 0-2 3, Young 0 1-2 1, Ward 0 1-2 1, Dunnam 2 1-2 5.
West De Pere 12 10 15 14 — 51
Shawano 10 11 11 6 — 38
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