New Richmond – February is generally a good month for teams to measure where they stand on the high school basketball landscape.
Two weeks from postseason play, Wyoming East head coach Angie Boninsegna has to be pleased with how the defending Class AA champions are coming along.
Winners of three straight, the Lady Warriors added a signature win to their ledger Wednesday night, defeating Class AAAA Princeton 57-34 in New Richmond.
After a slow start in which both teams went scoreless until the 4:28 mark of the first quarter, the Lady Warriors turned up the heat on defense stealing eight passes in the frame and scoring 12 straight to take a 12-2 advantage. They never saw their lead falter below double digits.
“I think our defense got established,” Boninsegna said. “It got us some offense. The first half our defense was really good and we were on the ball and played help-side. The second half, I don’t know if fatigue settled in or whatever but we’ve got to work on putting all four quarters together on defense.”
Offense proved to be a struggle for both teams in opening minutes with Princeton drawing first blood on a Maddie Stull layup nearly halfway through the frame.
The hosts didn’t take kindly to the wound, delivering the knockout blow early.
Over the following two minutes the Lady Warriors embarked on a 12-0 run, getting a 3-pointer from Hannah Blankenship and a pair of three-point plays from Kayley Bane and Maddie Clark. Buckets from Bane and Colleen Lookabill capped what was a 16-0 run to end the first quarter, putting East firmly in charge.
Bane kept the hot hand early in the second, pushing the lead to 19-2 on her second three-point play of the evening. Sadie Boggess temporarily applied a bandaid with a layup to cut the deficit to 15 but Bane again ripped it off, spurring a 12-2 run that put the hosts up 31-7.
The lead never again fell below 20.
For the Lady Warriors it was a stellar display of defense as they picked off 13 passes in the first half, forcing 16 turnovers. They also made more field goals (16 of 32) than Princeton attempted (4 of 12) in the opening opening half, leading 35-12 at the intermission.
For the Tigers it was a continuation of a frustrating trend on offense.
In nine games since returning from a 34-day quarantine hiatus, they’ve averaged 41.5 points per game, failing to score more than 40 in four of those contests. Prior that stretch they were averaging 58 points per game across their first eight games.
“If I knew I’d fix it,” Princeton coach Matt Smith said when asked to pinpoint the issue. “Not only are we not scoring but we only took 12 shots in the first half. I just told them in the locker room ‘You shoot 27 percent and you take 12 shots, you score six points.’ If you get 25 or 30 shots you still make the same percentage but at least now you give yourself a chance. Win or lose, we don’t make every shot. That’s not us. We’re not a team that makes 40 or 50 percent of our shots. But the effort has to be there. We have to be monstrous on the boards and we have to work hard defensively.
“We did that much better in the second half but when the shots aren’t falling – and we didn’t take enough of them – and they start to hit a few shots. We lost this game in the first eight minutes.”
For the Warriors it was an encouraging win as they gear up for postseason play with the No. 1 seed in their section likely secured with a 4-0 record against sectional opponents. With growth being the message Boninsegna has preached all season she’s seen much of it in recent weeks.
“I think defensively we’re starting to get in more of a groove and we’re starting off the game really strong,” Boninsegna said. “Offensively we’ve got to be patient and look for each other. That’s coming along the more we play together because this team right here hasn’t played a lot together. Now we’re getting Abby (Russell) a little into the mix and our freshmen more into the mix. I think the more we play together our offense will come. We’re unselfish and good about looking for the open man and as long as we can continue to do that we’ll get better.”
Clark and Bane led East with 12 points each while Clark added 10 steals and five assists. Blankenship and Russell rounded out the double-figure scorers, pitching in 10 each for East. Kalyn Davis and Reagan Southers each scored eight points for Princeton in the loss.
East improves to 10-3 and will travel to PikeView on Friday. Princeton falls to 11-6 and will host Greenbrier East on Friday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
P: 2 10 7 15 – 34
WE: 16 19 7 15 – 57
Princeton
Autumn Bane 4, Reagan Southers 8, Lauren Parish 2, Kalee Wright 1, Kalyn Davis 8, Aliyah Taylor 3, Sadie Boggess 6
Wyoming East
Hannah Blankenship 10, Maddie Clark 12, Kayley Bane 12, Colleen Lookabill 2, Cadde Blackburn 5, Alivia Monroe 4, Abby Russell 10, Gabby Cameron 2
3-point goals – P: 2 (Southers 2); WE: 4 (Blankenship 2, Russell 2)
