MarshfieldAreaSports.com
NEILLSVILLE – Paige Albrecht scored 21 points to keep the Marshfield Columbus Catholic girls basketball team in the game, but first-place Neillsville made 6 of 9 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off the Dons 43-36 in a Cloverbelt Conference East Division game Thursday night at Neillsville High School.
Albrecht made 6 of 11 shots from the field and was a perfect 7 of 7 from the free-throw line, but no other Don scored more than seven points as Neillsville, ranked sixth in Division 2 in the latest wissports.net Coaches Poll, won for the eighth straight time.
Columbus was within three at 22-19 at halftime but scored just one point in the third quarter and could never find a way to catch up to the Warriors, who can clinch the Cloverbelt East championship with a win at second-place Owen-Withee next Tuesday.
Caitlin Courtney and Angela Meshnick each scored 14 points for the Warriors.
Columbus (10-7, 8-5 Cloverbelt East) is back in action Tuesday at home against Granton.
Warriors 43, Dons 36
Columbus 5 14 1 16 – 36
Neillsville 12 10 7 14 – 43
COLUMBUS (36): Paige Albrecht 6-11 7-7 21, Olivia Larson 0-5 0-0 0, Nikki Karl 2-10 1-2 7, Deanna Kaiser 0-2 0-0 0, Megan Arneson 0-1 0-0 0, Kayla Fleischmann 1-4 1-2 3, Taylor Weister 1-2 0-0 2, Elizabeth Manlick 1-6 1-2 3. FG: 11-41. FT: 10-13. 3-pointers: 4-13 (Karl 2-5, Albrecht 2-4, Larsen 0-3, Manlick 0-1). Record: 10-7, 8-5 Cloverbelt East.
NEILLSVILLE (43): Tia Opelt 3 0-1 7, Stephanie O’Leary 0 0-0 0, Sammie Pfeiffer 2 0-0 4, Alyssa Anding 1 2-3 4, Kayla Opelt 0 0-0 0, Casandra Craig 0 0-0 0, Caitlin Pavlac 0 0-0 0, Caitlin Courtney 6 2-3 14, Angela Meshnick 5 4-4 14, Noelle Fitzmaurice 0 0-0 0, McKenzie Trunkel 0 0-0 0. FG: 17. FT: 8-12. 3-pointers: 1 (Opelt 1). Record: 16-2, 13-0 Cloverbelt East.
