GIRLS BASKETBALL: Panthers outlast Burlington

Wilmot, led by Stanek’s 19, stays atop SLC

By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer

For Wilmot Union High School senior McKenna Stanek, she felt a sense of urgency entering Friday’s girls basketball contest against visiting Burlington, with her team less than two games ahead of the Demons in the Southern Lakes Conference standings.

McKenna Stanek

The urgency not only propelled Stanek to set a new career-high 19 points, it helped Wilmot to a 53-46 defeat of the Demons, who are now two games back following their loss to the Panthers.

Wilmot improved to 10-3 (7-1 SLC) while Burlington dropped to 6-7 (4-3 SLC).

“I knew it was a big game, for us being 6-1 in the conference, and we had Burlington to play,” said Stanek. “So we needed to come out strong and I had to play my role.”

Her strong play, in addition to the Panthers’ overall team effort, offset 5-foot-10 Burlington junior Jessa Burling’s game-high 24 points and 14 rebounds.

According to Panthers’ coach Keiya Square, the 5-foot-10 Burling was difficult to stop, noting her ability to attack the inside lane.

“Jessa is really good and she was able to attack us in certain spots,” said Square, who also had Demons’ senior Megan Wallace to contend with. “We tried to shut down one of them.”

Wallace scored 12 points and had seven rebounds.

Stanek, a 5-foot-2 guard, and her senior teammate Devin Coleman sparked a 7-0 run to open the contest, with Stanek knocking in the first points, followed by both a 3-pointer and jumper from Coleman.

Coleman, who went 2 for 3 from the arc, finished with eight points.

Meanwhile, Burling went to work, drawing a Panthers’ junior Morgan Zenon foul to send her to the free throw line, where she converted 1 of 2 shots to post the Demons’ first point of contest.

“Jessa is a gutsy player, she carries a lot of the load for us and she did that again tonight,” said Burlington coach Mary Parker.

After Demons’ Mackenzie Zwiebel and Stanek traded shots from the arc, Zwiebel pulled the game within four points following a baseline jumper, giving the Panthers a 10-6 edge.

From there, Burling and Wallace knotted the contest at 10-10 with a bucket apiece, before Wilmot 5-10 senior Delaney Sjong helped the Panthers reclaim the lead at 12-10.

Sjong finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and a blocked shot.

After three lead changes, which had Burlington ahead 21-16 with less than two minutes left of the first half, Stanek responded with four points and Sjong added the go-ahead bucket with 37.1 seconds remaining to send the Panthers into halftime with a 22-21 edge.

Back-and-forth second half
Burlington, however, produced a 13-10 run lasting nearly 10 minutes to open the second half, therefore, giving them 34-32 lead.

In the ensuing possession, Sjong had a 3-point play, courtesy of a Wallace foul to give the Panthers a 35-34 edge.

Following two Burling free throws, which pulled the game in the Demons’ favor, Stanek drained a 3-pointer to give the Panthers a 38-36 with 7:55 left of regulation.

Burlington breakdown
Burling deadlocked the contest with two more free throws, before the Panthers took control of the contest with 6:35 remaining, starting with two Zenon free throws and a Hickey 3-pointer.

Zenon had seven rebounds and four points.

“We just lost communication on defense a couple times, we had a few too many breakdowns, we didn’t communicate and they were able to knock down some shots,” Parker said.

Square, meanwhile, planned to apply pressure and clog the inside lanes, where Wallace and Burling scored most of their shots.

“We just continued to press the issue and we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do, and towards the end, we wanted them to shoot jump shots to beat us and try to keep them out of the lane,” Square said.

The plan worked, noting the Demons went 1 for 15 from the perimeter.

As the contest wore on, the Demons had to intentionally foul, leading Wallace to foul out with 7.8 seconds left of regulation.

Stanek, who took four straight fouls, went to the free throw line, where she widened the lead with five free throws.

“We had to battle back and change our strategy and then we had to start fouling,” said Parker.

While Stanek helped widen, and eventually secure the victory, she said it was a collective effort to win.

“I wouldn’t say I took it all, we all played really well and it was a good team effort,” Stanek said.


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