This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Wausau Newman Catholic girls basketball team is known for its tenacious defense and, Tuesday night, Auburndale couldn’t handle the full-court pressure put on by the Cardinals.
The Apaches committed 21 turnovers and had three scoreless strings of 4 minutes or more that they couldn’t overcome, losing the battle of Marawood Conference South Division co-leaders 53-32 to Newman at Auburndale High School.
Newman, ranked No. 1 in Division 5 in the latest wissports.net State Coaches Poll, improves to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Marawood South, while Auburndale (No. 7 in Division 4) falls to 6-1 and 3-1 in conference.
“We played hard, we just made key mistakes at key times,” Auburndale coach Corey Manlick said.
Auburndale started strong in each of the first three quarters, but had long scoreless streaks that would allow Newman to build sizeable leads each time.
Newman led 14-9 after the first quarter before the Apaches tied it with an early run in the second. Liz Breu scored off a rebound and Kayla Nikolay drilled a 3-pointer to make it 14-14.
But, what became common place for Auburndale, it couldn’t keep the momentum going.
Newman scored the next 16 points and forced six turnovers over the next 5:48. Taylor Thomas, who led all scorers with 16 points, had a pair of three-point plays and Sarah Connolly capped the run with a 3-pointer to give the Cardinals a 30-14 lead.
Auburndale ended the streak on a layup by Kayla Nikolay with 32 seconds to go before halftime, and the Apaches came out of the locker room hot.
Kayleigh Kundinger and Nikolay hit 3-pointers and Lindsay Gotz hit a shot inside to cut Newman’s lead to 30-24 with 6:17 to go into the third.
Once again, the Apaches couldn’t keep the momentum going. Newman went on a 15-2 run over the next 10 minutes to pull away.
Auburndale committed five turnovers during the run and made just one basket from the field during the final 12 minutes of the game.
“We started out hot in the second half and all of a sudden we had some key turnvoers,” Manlick said. “We’re kind of breaking our press and then they get an easy layup. You can’t have it, especially against them, they strive on that. I’m going to give them (Newman) a little credit for what they do. It was one of those nights – it wasn’t our night – and they clicked on all cylinders.”
Auburndale plays only one game in the next three weeks – on Dec. 30 at Iola-Scandinavia. The Apaches return to Marawood Conference South action Jan. 11 at Pittsville.
“It’s going to test the girls’ character,” Manlick said. “Do we have the Newman slump the rest of the year, or do we say, ‘Well, let’s start clicking on all cylinders, let’s get back into shape, let’s get back into basketball mode and stick it to the next team and the next team.’
“We have to not dwell on it, learn from our mistakes and hopefully we can make the right adjustments for next time when we meet them up in Wausau (on Feb. 11).”
Cardinals 53, Apaches 32
Wausau Newman 14 16 11 12 – 53
Auburndale 9 7 10 6 – 32
NEWMAN (53): Megan Connolly 3-4 2-2 8, Terese Dlobik 1-3 0-0 2, Sarah Connolly 1-5 0-1 3, Lauren Tubbs 3-8 7-7 14, Erica Hartke 2-6 6-10 10, Taylor Thomas 7-12 2-2 16, Brianna Jehn 0-0 0-0 0, Grace Kennedy 0-0 0-0 0, Brianna Jankowski 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 17-38. FT: 17-22. 3-pointers: 2-4 (Tubbs 1-1, S. Connolly 1-1, Dlobik 0-1, M. Connolly 0-1). Rebounds: 18 (Thomas 5, Tubbs 5). Turnovers: 11. Total fouls: 11. Fouled out: Thomas. Record: 7-0, 4-0 Marawood Conference South.
AUBURNDALE (32): Mikayla Jankowski 0-0 0-0 0, Kayleigh Kundinger 1-3 0-0 3, Kayla Nikolay 3-5 1-2 9, Nicole Nikolay 0-1 0-0 0, Sam Karl 0-0 0-0 0, Katie Willfahrt 1-2 0-0 2, Kelly Tomfohrde 3-9 2-2 8, Lindsay Gotz 3-6 0-0 7, Liz Breu 1-3 1-2 3, Kayla Gotz 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 12-30. FT: 4-6. 3-pointers: 4-10 (K. Nikolay 2-3, Kundinger 1-3, L. Gotz 1-2, Tomfohrde 0-2). Rebounds: 24 (L. Gotz 6). Turnovers: 21. Total fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 6-1, 3-1 Marawood South.