Arcadia spreads scoring to beat G-E-T in girls hoops

The Arcadia High School girls basketball team spread the scoring to earn an early lead despite giving up the first points of the game last Tuesday on a night they beat their county rival, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau, on the road.

After G-E-T junior Halene DeJager scored the game’s first points, five different Raiders combined to score the game’s next 21 points. Arcadia went on to win 58-15 over the Red Hawks. The Raiders (5-2 overall, 4-1 Coulee Conference) took down another county opponent in Independence/Gilmanton last Thursday and were set to visit Tomah this Tuesday.

Arcadia coach Evan Pagel said Tuesday’s start was crucial for his group.

“We had an emphasis on a fast start but then more importantly maintaining that fast start because we’ve been a team that plays in spurts,” Pagel said. “We can start a game strong, but then we’ll hit a lull. But tonight was a full game so we checked the box there.”

The Red Hawks trailed big at halftime on a night offense was hard to find for the hosts — Amara Brantner, DeJager and Cadence Simmons split G-E-T’s offense with five points apiece.

Coach John Schmidtknecht said G-E-T wanted to zero in on “the little things” after the early deficit and focus on each possession.

“We talked about doing the little things, making the little adjustments to keep us competitive every game. With a lot of new players we work on the little things a lot to keep improving, and as long as we keep doing the little things eventually we’ll see the outcome of it,” Schmidtkecht said.

The Raiders found multiple points on the rush on Tuesday, beating G-E-T defenders down the court to get looks in the lane or drawing fouls.

Schmidtknecht thought his team played strong in their standard defense, but defending transition basketball is one coaching point moving forward for G-E-T.

“We’ve been getting beat by a lot of transition points and fast breaks, so it was about getting back on defense, seeing the ball and covering holes where they’re getting a lot of points. Our turnovers have been better, but if we turn it over, we just have to get back to try to cut down the transition baskets to help us stay within a game,” Schmidtknecht said.

Arcadia senior Casidi Pehler hit a pair of three-pointers and also created havoc under the rim to finish with a game-high 17 points.

Arcadia also got 11 points from freshman point guard Madison Grotjahn and nine more from senior Kanah Slaby.

“We’re a team now that we don’t need everybody to be the star,” Pagel said. “Casidi had a great night tonight. Some others maybe didn’t have as great of games, but it shows our depth that it’s going to be tough to plan against us, especially when Casidi is a presence on the inside but also hitting shots on the outside. It makes us tough to defend.”

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points)—Bremer 1/2-0/0-1-2-3; Walters 0/0-0/0-1-0-0; Slaby 4/8-1/4-2-2-9; Grotjahn 5/11-0/2-4-1-11; Lockington 2/5-0/0-2-1-5; Drazkowski 2/5-1/2-10-0-5; Pehler 7/10-1/2-7-2-17; Anderson 0/0-0/1-1-0-0; Aspen 0/1-0/0-2-1-0; Schlesser 2/3-0/0-0-0-6; Schlosstein 0/0-0/0-2-0-0; Sonsalla 1/6-0/0-5-1-2.

G-E-T (field goals-free throws/attempts-fouls-points)—Hauge 0-0/0-3-0; Brantner 2-0/0-0-5; Filla 0-0/0-2-0; DeJager 2-1/5-1-5; Johnson 0-0/0-3-0; Lightfoot 0-0/0-1-0; Grams 0-0/2-2-0; Backeberg 0-0/0-1-0; Simmons 1-3/4-2-5.

Arcadia 51 I/G 36

Tatum Drazkowski was busy near the basket in Thursday’s win over Independence/Gilmanton.

The freshman had 12 points and a game-high 17 rebounds to help the hosts maintain possession in their win over a county opponent. 

Arcadia took control, scoring 16 of the first 20 points in the first eight minutes. The Raiders took a 31-14 lead into halftime. The Raiders went ahead by 20 early in the second half before the Indees made the final score closer late. 

Pehler led Arcadia with 16 points, and Amaya Schlesser had eight. Arcadia shot 37 percent from the field, while I/G made 23.5 percent of its shots. 

Arabelle Kniseley led I/G with 16 points.

Arcadia (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-points)—Bremer 0/1-0/0-1-0; Slaby 1/2-0/0-0-2; Grotjahn 1/7-2/4-2-5; Lockington 1/1-0/0-2-3; Drazkowski 5/12-2/2-17-12; Pehler 6/12-3/5-7-16; Aspen 1/3-0/2-3; Schlesser 3/7-0/0-5-8; Sonsalla 1/6-0/0-1-2.

I/G (field goals/attempts-free throws/attempts-rebounds-fouls-points) — Halama 0/2-0/0-1-0-0 Kniseley 5/14-4/7-9-3-16 Pronschinske 1/5-0/0-4-0-3 Schank 1/9-1/2-7-2-3 S. Kampa 0/1-0/0-0-0-0 S. Dejno 2/5-0/0-1-1-4 C. Kampa 1/1-0.0-0-1-2 K. Dejno 0/4-2/4-8-2-2 Scow 0/7-2/4-2-3-2 Sylla 2/3-0/0-0-1-4