This story is sponsored by: High Street Salon, Spa & Travel
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – One solid stretch of offense was all the Stratford girls basketball team needed to pull past Spencer.
The Tigers outscored Spencer 25-9 over the final 11 minutes of the first half to pull out to a double-digit lead and they held on from there, cruising to a 49-29 win in a WIAA Division 4 regional quarterfinal Tuesday night at Stratford High School.
Stratford (12-11) plays at Oconto (19-3) in a Division 4 regional semifinal on Friday.
Stratford led 8-7 before closing out the first quarter by scoring the final seven points – five by Macie Frueh.
The Tigers began the third quarter on an 8-2 run as Casey Kolbeck hit three baskets in the first 2:11 to put Stratford up 23-9.
Spencer made just three more baskets the rest of the quarter and Stratford rolled out to a 33-16 lead by halftime.
“It’s win and move on and I’ll always take a 20-point win in tournaments,” Stratford coach Tammie Christopherson said. “Next we have Oconto and they have a girl (Laken James, who averages 20 points a game) that’s going Division I to Green Bay next year, so we’re going to definitely have to work on locking her down. We’re going to start preparing and hopefully give them a good run.”
Spencer outscored Stratford 9-7 in the third quarter but couldn’t get closer than 14 points in the second half as it missed 11 of 14 free throw attempts and the Tigers’ big first-half lead was enough to push them through.
“We struggle shooting sometimes against a zone,” Christopherson said. “Luckily, we hit early on and did what we needed to do to keep a 20-point lead most of the game. They came to play and played hard. We kept that lead and kept that cushion even when our offense dried up a little bit.”
The Rockets (6-17) finished with 24 turnovers.
Frueh and Kolbeck each had 10 points and Brooke Schultze had six points, six steals and six rebounds for the Tigers.
Tigers 49, Rockets 29
Spencer 7 9 9 4 – 29
Stratford 15 18 7 9 – 49
SPENCER (29): Macie Weber 5-8 0-0 10, Brooke Kettleborough 2-3 1-2 6, Sydney Kind 1-8 0-0 3, Marisa Johnson 1-7 0-2 2, Kallie Reckner 1-1 0-2 2, Karly Bump 1-2 0-0 2, Courtney Buss 1-1 0-0 2, Amanda Skrzeczkoski 0-0 1-2 1, Rachel Zastrow 0-1 1-4 1, Jordyn Wichlacz 0-1 0-0 0, Katlynne Waler 0-0 0-0 0, Melissa Lehman 0-0 0-0 0, Felicia Weier 0-0 0-0 0, Abby Varsho 0-1 0-2 0, Liz Endreas 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 12-34. FT: 3-14. 3-pointers: 2-8 (Kind 1-5, Kettleborough 1-1, Bump 0-1, Zastrow 0-1). Rebounds: 22 (Weber 6). Turnovers: 24. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: none. Record: 6-17.
STRATFORD (49): Macie Frueh 3-8 3-4 10, Casey Kolbeck 5-9 0-0 10, Emily Hauke 3-11 3-4 9, Brooke Schultze 1-7 4-4 6, Tianna Hughes 3-4 0-1 6, Savannah Schillinger 2-4 1-3 5, Amanda Rindfleisch 1-3 0-0 2, Marissa Cepress 0-1 1-2 1, Nadia King 0-0 0-0 0, Sammy Griesbach 0-0 0-0 0, Andie Zuelke 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 18-48. FT: 12-18. 3-pointers: 1-6 (Frueh 1-3, Schultze 0-1, Schillinger 0-1, Rindfleisch 0-1). Rebounds: 17 (Schultze 6). Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: none. Record: 12-11.