By Paul Lecker
For OnFocus
STRATFORD – The Stratford girls basketball team had its worse offensive output of the season on Monday night, and it came in a bad spot.
The Tigers shot 30 percent from the floor and committed 15 turnovers, which proved too much to overcome, as they lost a WIAA Division 3 girls basketball regional final to Arcadia 45-29 at Stratford High School.
Arcadia (19-4) will take on Coulee Conference rival Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau (22-2) in a sectional semifinal Thursday at Black River Falls. Hayward (17-6) and Prescott (20-3) will play in the other semifinal, with the winners meeting in a sectional final and playing for a berth in the WIAA state tournament on Saturday afternoon at Altoona.
Arcadia scored the game’s first six points and never trailed as the Tigers (16-6) couldn’t get their offense going.
“We didn’t score early on. We had a lot of uncharacteristic turnovers and they took us on our heels a bit with their length,” Stratford coach Tammie Christopherson said.
Arcadia built a 16-6 lead on baskets by Ellie Hoesley and Chloe Halverson before Stratford made a run to close out the first half.
Mariah Zawislan had two free throws and two baskets, and Blaire Lindner added another hoop as the Tigers used an 8-0 run to cut it to 16-14 heading into the break.
The Tigers were hoping to make that momentum into the second half, but Arcadia quashed those hopes quickly.
The Raiders scored 12-straight points, eight from Hoesley on the help of two 3-pointers, put Arcadia up 28-14 3½ minutes into the second half. Arcadia led by double digits the rest of the way.
“Once, at the end of the first half, we got everything moving and everyone going in the right direction we closed that gap, and they just gave us a knockout punch that first minute or so of the second half and we couldn’t recover from that,” Christopherson said. “We had a hard time putting the ball in the hole tonight. I don’t think we had a 3, we just could not get that one to fall.
“You have nights like that, unfortunately it had to come tonight.”
Hoesley finished with 16 points and Halverson added 13 points for the Raiders.
Macie Schillinger had nine points and Zawislan added eight points for Stratford.
“It seemed like every time we’d getting rolling, they dumped in a 3 and lengthened that lead out,” Christopherson said. “It’s an outstanding group of ladies and an outstanding group of seniors that we have here that will be sorely missed. Unfortunately it came to an end tonight.”
Raiders 45, Tigers 29
Arcadia 16 29 – 45
Stratford 14 15 – 29
ARCADIA (45): Chloe Halverson 6-8 0-2 13, Ali Pronshcinske 0-1 0-0 0, Hailey Sonsalla 0-0 0-0 0, Ellie Hoesley 6-14 2-2 16, Nicole Madden 1-2 3-6 5, Linzey Sendelbach 3-4 1-3 5, Brooke Pronschinske 0-0 0-0 0, Meredes Romo 1-4 2-4 4. FG: 17-33. FT: 8-17. 3-pointers: 3-11 (Hoesley 2-7, Halverson 1-1, Romo 0-3). Rebounds: 24 (Halverson 6). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 19-4.
STRATFORD (29): Tanaya Schillinger 0-2 0-0 0, Callie Lehman 0-3 2-3 2, Blaire Lindner 3-9 0-0 6, Macie Schillinger 3-8 3-5 9, Paige Kolbeck 0-0 0-0 0, Mariah Zawislan 3-4 2-2 8, Ashley O’Neil 0-1 0-0 0, Breanna Ackley 2-8 0-0 4, Gracie Hauke 0-1 0-0 0, Kamryn Schueller 0-0 0-0 0, Anna Carl-Brusky 0-0 0-0 0, Emily Hughes 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 11-36. FT: 7-10. 3-pointers: 0-11 (O’Neil 0-1, T. Schillinger 0-1, Lindner 0-2, Lehman 0-3, Ackley 0-4). Rebounds: 21 (Ackley 5). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 16-6.
Author: News Desk
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