LENA – Friday night it was a showdown of the first seed Lena Wildcats and the ninth seed Green Bay NEW Lutheran Blazers. Early projections and assumptions leaned toward the Lena Wildcats, who last season made it all the way to the Div. 5 state final, but those assumptions and prognostications all proved to be incorrect as the Blazers shocked the home court fans with a 56-48 upset victory.
“Team effort,” said Green Bay NEW Lutheran head coach Nicole Natzke when asked what phrase would sum up the win. “It was phenomenal how we understood the game plan and how we followed through and how we lifted each other up, we were encouraging, no one cared who had the ball and we just knew what had to be done.”
Underdog Green Bay NEW Lutheran had a tough season amongst the Packerland Conference where they ended league play with a 7-9 conference record, finding themselves in the fifth spot of the conference between Oconto and Peshtigo.
The Blazers carried a 12-13 overall record.
Lena on the other hand destroyed the competition in the M&O conference, dropping only one match to Oneida Nation to carry a 15-1 record in league play. Lena also carried a 22-2 overall record.
It wasn’t the first time these two teams have met this season either. On Jan. 23, The Blazers came into Lena and were handed a 48-39 loss. The Blazers apparently took a lesson from the loss and were ready to show the Wildcats what they had learned.
“We played them at the end of January and we lost by nine,” said Natzke. “After watching film we did some things well but we weren’t quite there yet. We’ve been close to winning in many games. We knew we were going to get a second chance at them.”
All those numbers meant nothing Friday night as the Wildcats struggled to find an answer to a strong defensive gamelan by the Blazers and a stellar night from Blazer Ingrid Beaumont. Beaumont went on a tear, slicing the Wildcat defense for a game pleading 23 points.
“She was a little wired against Suring on Tuesday and trying to do too much, “said Natzke about Beaumont. “The whole team tonight just seemed to settle down before the game. She (Beaumont) knew what she needed to do. She took her shots and passed the ball when she needed to and knew when we had the advantage. She’s just such a smart player.”
Lena also found itself in foul trouble, as multiple players approached their foul limit entering the last half of the second period. Most notable was Lena all star Eva Brooks, who took her final foul with six minutes left in the game, leaving the Wildcats without one of their key scorers and defensives presences.
“Lena has two really good players,” said Natzke when asked about her team’s game plan. “We had to focus on them and they did their job…We’ve been focusing on finishing and playing two halves of ball and that’s what we did, we played two complete halves.”
Lena opened the nights scoring on a Brooks layup and were answered by the Blazers on a score from Lexie Meerstein.
Wildcat Kali Fischer registered one of her three first half three pointer to bring Lena to an early 5-2 lead.
Three point shots were not exclusive to the Wildcats as Green Bay NEW Lutheran’s Beaumont responded to the Wildcat lead with one of her own, bringing the Blazers within one 7-6.
The Blazers took their first lead after a layup from Meredith Lemke-Scott, 8-7.
From this point on, the Wildcats found themselves desperately trying to recapture the lead as the Blazers slowly started to distance themselves, eventually increasing their lead to 10 points over the second half.
During that first half the score stayed very close. Fischer hit another three to knot the score up at 14-14 while the Blazers’ Addison Bruley took the lead with a score that brought her team to 17-15.
After a Meerstein score and the 23-19 lead, Lena’s Fischer hit her third triple of the night, bringing Lena with one of the lead 23-22.
Near the end of the half Green Bay NEW Lutheran’s Meerstein struck from behind the arc, helping to secure a 26-24 lead.
The Blazers ended the half in control of the score board 30-26.
Starting the second half, Beaumont got thing going for the Blazers with a long range shot that was just shy of a three pointer. A short while later she struck in close, giving the Blazer’s a 35-27 lead.
With 11:26 left in the game Green Bay NEW Lutheran’s Abby Kirchner gave her team their biggest lead of the night, striking on a three point bucket for the 40-30 differential.
Lena battled back with some impassioned play by Brooks who hit on three free throw points to bring her team within six of the lead 42-38. But a short while later she was fouled out, leaving Lena reeling and in need of one of their strongest defensive players.
With Brooks out and a clear opening in the Lena defense, the Blazers’ Beaumont went on full attack, furiously slashing through the lane and shooting the lights out on her way to her 23 point tally.
Beaumont hit quickly after the loss of Brooks for a 47-40 lead and struck again a short while later for the 51-42 lead.
At this point the Blazer’s started burning the clock down and forced the Wildcats to play the foul game. Beaumont kept the ball in her hands and hit for four free throw points over the waning seconds to give her team the 56-48 victory.
The Blazer’s were led by Beaumont with those game leading 23 points and Meerstein with her 10 points. Lemke-Scott posted seven.
Lena was led by Fischer with 15 points and Brooks with 14 points. Abby Kostreva, Hannah Thomson and Madi Thomson all posted five points each.
Green Bay NEW Lutheran will be back in action Saturday, March 1 for a Regional championship game against the Oneida Nation Thunderhawks which will take place at Oneida Nation.
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