B-T girls top two DC opponents
The Blair-Taylor girls wrapped up their regular season with a pair of wins of Dairyland Conference opponents.
Last Monday, the Wildcats edged past Whitehall in a closely contested non-conference matchup between familiar foes. Then on Thursday, B-T earned their 11th win in the conference, topping Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran in a road finale to their regular season. They also were credited with a forfeit win for a game that was supposed to have been played on Feb. 14 against Alma/Pepin.
B-T finished the regular season 17-5, as well as a conference championship-worthy 11-3 in the Dairyland.
The Wildcats also earned a fourth seed in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association regional playoffs, as they hosted 13th-seeded Pittsville on Tuesday. The winner of that matchup faces the winner of fifth-seeded Royall and 12th-seeded New Lisbon on Friday.
B-T 55 Whitehall 47 - A non-conference matchup of Dairyland Small and Large teams ended up a bit closer than records going in may have suggested last Monday night.
The Wildcats found themselves narrowly ahead of Whitehall by a 10-9 score before a 10-2 run featuring five points from Marlee Nehring put them up by nine. The Norse answered shortly thereafter with an 8-2 run including a three by Norah Youngbauer and a three-point play by Ariel Koxlien to take a 23-22 lead.
The teams went back and forth the rest of the first half until Abby Thompson knocked down a go-ahead three with seven seconds remaining in the first half for B-T to take a 28-26 lead into the break.
B-T held on late despite the Norse hanging around for most of the second half. Both teams shot nearly identical percentages from the field, as Whitehall hit 26 percent of their 34 shots and B-T hit 26.9 percent of their 48. A 23-15 advantage in offensive rebounds for the Wildcats however helped them get extra opportunities on the offensive end.
For the game for B-T, Thompson led scorers with 19 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Also in double digits were Nehring with 15 and Lindsey Steien with 10, followed by Lauren Kidd with five and Callie Wagner, Kierstyn Kindschy and Chloe Wagner each with two points. Nehring led the team with 12 boards and Steien had eight assists as well.
Leading the Norse for the game were Koxlien’s 18 points, followed by eight from Norah Youngbauer, seven from Olivia Youngbauer, four each from Sami Huff, Ellie Matejka and Abby Semb and two from Nylah Lisowski. Koxlien also led the team with 12 rebounds, while Kensie Beighley led the team in assists with three.
B-T 61 ECIL 45 - The Wildcats finished their regular season with their ninth win in their last 11 games in a road finale with ECIL.
Nineteen first-half points from Steien helped lead the way, along with another nine from Nehring and eight from Thompson. B-T led 35-26 at half, and remained in control for most of the rest of the game.
Steien led scorers with 23 points, followed by Nehring and Thompson each with 15, three each from Chloe Wagner and Lauren Kidd, and one each from Callie Wagner and Kindschy.
