Falcon girls make strides forward, but fall to Broncos, Badgers

By Dan Truttschel~Sports Correspondent

There are times when first-year Westosha Central girls basketball coach Ruth Buehler sees flashes that her team is heading in the right direction.

Unfortunately, those instances aren’t happening quite enough for the Falcons to turn the corner just yet.

Central showed brief glimpses of positive play in a pair of Southern Lakes Conference games last week, but came away with two more losses to fall to 4-13 overall and 3-8 in conference play.

The Falcons opened the week with a 66-40 loss Jan. 29 to visiting Union Grove, followed by a 51-25 loss Feb. 1 to Badger.

“I wish I had a good answer for our inconsistency,” Buehler said. “I look forward to stringing together four solid quarters.

“It just seems that once we miss a few shots, hesitation sets in and we lose confidence. In both games, we couldn’t get outside shots to fall.”

Against Badger, the Falcons trailed 9-2 after the first quarter before the Badgers exploded in the second quarter and took a 36-9 halftime lead.

Central outscored the visitors 16-15 the final two quarters, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“Badger played well, but honestly, we threw the ball away and had unforced turnovers way too much,” Buehler said.

Madison Stanczyk led the way with 11 points, followed by Brienna Bostanche with four and Maddie Erickson and Christina Pitts each with three.

In the week’s first game, Union Grove was hot from the start, as it converted on better than 50 percent of its field-goal attempts.

The Broncos led 16-7 after the first quarter and 29-18 at halftime. Union Grove put the game out of reach in the third quarter with a 19-10 advantage.

“(Union Grove’s hot shooting) forced us out of our defensive game plan,” Buehler said.

Megan Ziesmann led the way with 13 points, followed by Jaela McGill with 10 and Stanczyk with seven.

 

Continue to look ahead

Buehler said she wants her team to use its last several games to get back to a plan of continued improvement for the future.

She feels like the Falcons have hit a lull in recent games, which is something she hopes they can turn around.

“Hopefully, in our last five games we can get the girls to refocus on just working at getting stronger with the ball, a willingness to take shots and communication,” she said.

One thing Buehler never has doubted is her team’s effort, which has been a constant.

“I love that everyone comments that our teams works very hard the whole game,” she said. “We never quit. I would agree with that.

“We just have to become more basketball savvy. I want to protect their confidence as well, keep doing what each of them does well and have fun doing it. A lot of the polishing (of their skills) can be taken care of in the summer.”

Central is back in action Friday night when it travels to rival Wilmot for a 6 p.m. SLC contest. The girls’ varsity game will be followed by the Central-Wilmot varsity boys’ contest at about 8 p.m.

 


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