Wildcats pick up two more lopsided DC wins, first seed in tournament
Andrea Waldera of Blair-Taylor blocked the shot of Whitehall’s Eden Matejka during their game last week Monday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
Whitehall’s Haili Sluga looked to the basket with Blair-Taylor’s Sydney Fremstad defending during their game last week Monday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
The Blair-Taylor girls basketball team had two more Dairyland Conference wins and were awarded the first seed in its Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division Five bracket last week.
B-T started fast in both games, outscoring Whitehall 20-4 in the first few minutes of a 85-43 win last week Tuesday and C-FC 16-6 in a 72-54 win on Friday.
Those wins put the team at 22-0 overall and 9-0 in Dairyland Conference play before Tuesday’s matchup against Alma Center Lincoln (19-1, 6-0). B-T will finish the regular season with a home game against Augusta on Thursday.
B-T will open WIAA play with a bye before welcoming the winner of the game between (9) Loyal and (8) Wonewoc-Center next Friday. The regional final game — which could be against (5) C-FC or (4) Royall — will be played next Saturday with the highest seed hosting.
The sectional round will be played Thursday, March 2 and Saturday, March 4 with hosts yet to be announced.
B-T 85 Whitehall 43
The Wildcats stormed out of the gate, scoring 20 of the first 24 points in the game.
Whitehall struggled with B-T’s pressure defense as they had a tough time just getting past the halfcourt line early in the game. The result was numerous easy baskets for B-T as they took a big lead early.
The Norse eventually calmed down as Norah Youngbauer made a three pointer and Olivia Killian got a couple of baskets inside, but they still couldn’t stop the Wildcats. Abby Thompson made two three pointers and Lindsay Stein made another as the team took a 32-11 lead nine minutes in.
Whitehall played B-T mostly even for the remainder of the first half, but the B-T lead was 54-29 at halftime.
Steien and Thompson both scored a couple of baskets early in the second half as the Wildcats increased their lead. They led 70-34 midway through the second half and went on to win by 42.
It was a balanced attack for the Wildcats as Steien led the way with 21, while Lexi Lofgren put up a career-high 20 and Abby Thompson scored 19. Steien added 11 assists.
Youngbauer’s 19 led the Norse while Killian added 12 and 11 rebounds.
B-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points) — Thompson 8/12-1/1-4-2-19 Butterfield 0/0-0/0-0-2-0 Kidd 1/4-0/0-1-1-2 L. Frederixon 0/2-0/0-5-0-0 Steien 9/18-2/4-4-2-21 Waldera 5/8-1/2-6-1-11 Aguilar 1/1-0/0-0-0-2 Wagner 0/2-0/0-1-0-0 Kindschy 2/6-0/0-3-1-5 Fremstad 1/6-3/4-4-1-5 Lofgren 7/12-6/7-4-2-20
B-T 72 C-FC 54
A team that almost beat the Wildcats earlier this season was no match this time around.
The Pirates took B-T to overtime on Dec. 9, but it was apparent early that would not be the case this time around.
Thompson knocked down two three pointers and scored another basket as B-T began the game with a 16-6 run. Steien got going later in the half, scoring 14 points in the final nine minutes to help the Wildcats take a 42-27 lead into halftime.
Steien scored four baskets early in the second half as the Wildcats put the game out of reach.
Steien scored a game-high 25 points for B-T, while Thompson added 23 and Lofgren chipped in with 10 and nine rebounds.
B-T (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points) — Thompson 8/14-4/5-1-3-23 Kidd 0/4-0/0-1-3-0 L. Frederixon 0/1-1/2-1-0-1 Steien 10/23-4/6-5-3-25 Waldera 2/3-2/2-5-3-6 Aguilar 0/1-1/2-1-0-1 Wagner 1/2-0/2-3-3-2 Kindschy 0/7-0/2-3-2-0 Fremstad 2/7-0/5-3-5-4 Lofgren 2/5-6/8-9-4-10
