Appleton North duo of Werfal, Maass lead Lightning girls basketball to home win over Oshkosh North
By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – It’s hard to believe that Christmas is coming and the halfway point of the high school girls basketball season is fast approaching.
Looking to turn their slow start around, the Appleton North Lightning faced off against the Oshkosh North Spartans on Friday night at Appleton North High School and they were able to do just that.
Backed by the impressive inside-out showing of Tay Maass and Avery Werfal, the Lightning opened up a double-digit halftime lead and never looked back as they took down the Spartans 58-46.
The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated as Oshkosh North picked up a series of steals in the closing minutes, leading to several buckets.
“Obviously good to get back in the win column and take care of business tonight,” Appleton North head coach Brandon Reichenberger said. “Our group did a good job of setting the tone early on in this game and found some good opportunities early handling their press and in the half court. We gave ourselves some good opportunities tonight that allowed us to control for most of the game.”
Right from the jump Maass showed she was going to be a handful for the Spartans, scoring six of her team’s first eight points as part of an 11-point first half.
Throw in an Addy Campbell bucket paired with another one from Werfal and it was all Appleton North early as they opened up a 12-4 lead. Already with a massive lead, the Lightning defense continued to make life miserable for the Spartans, as they did a phenomenal job forcing turnovers and limiting the Oshkosh North offense to just one shot.
Those turnovers led to several transition buckets, including a three from Ava Koleske to push the lead to 15-4. It took a while for the Spartans offense to settle in, but once they started to feed Awut Alic on the inside, Oshkosh North managed to battle back as it pulled to within 18-11 after the Morgan Kolodzik triple.
It was that bucket that seemed to awaken the Lightning as they ripped off a 12-3 run anchored by a pair of Werfal 3-pointers to open up a massive 30-14 lead late in the half. Reichenberger said he loved the way his team pressured the basketball, which led to plenty of easy looks throughout the game.
“I thought we did a decent job on the defensive end, especially trying to limit points from Awut while keeping Paulson in check for Oshkosh North,” he said. “Their kids rebound on the offensive end very well and we missed some chances to limit them to one-shot possessions, which ultimately allowed them to stay in the game down the stretch with second-chance points. The defensive side of the ball has been something we’ve been working on collectively as a group and I was happy to see some of the little details show up as a team tonight.”
The Spartans continued to battle back and helped pull within 30-20 late in the first only to have a buzzer-beater crush their momentum as the Lightning took a 33-20 lead into the break.
Already up by double-digits, Werfal wasted no time building on what was already a great game as she scored the first seven points of the second half to push the Appleton North lead up to 40-20.
While Maass was the table setter in the first half, it was Werfal setting the tone in the second half as she scored 10 second-half points and all of them came within the team’s first 12 points. She finished with six 3-pointers and a game-high 24 points.
Had it not been for the Kolodzik and Brianna Paulson triples, Appleton North would’ve opened the second half on a 19-0 run, but with a 52-26 lead, their 19-3 run was good enough to break the game open.
After the Spartans scored five-straight, the size of Maass inside started to make an impact again as the Appleton North junior responded by scoring the final six points of the night for the Lightning, to finish with 21 points, and open up a 58-39 lead.
“Tay and Avery showed again tonight why they are two of the top players in our conference and led our team to a win,” Reichenberger said. “Tay has done a good job playing through contact and giving herself opportunities inside. Avery did a nice job tonight of finding her rhythm from the outside while also giving herself opportunities in the lane as well off the dribble even while sitting much of the first half with foul trouble.
“As we continue to get some other consistent scoring from our group, I look forward to seeing both of them have even better chances to score as we continue to develop chemistry within our team.”
Holding a 19-point lead and less than five minutes to go, it was only a matter of time until the Lightning would wrap up their second conference win of the season. Despite that, the Spartans didn’t make things easy as they began to bring a full-court press in the closing minutes, resulting in a handful of steals. Those steals would lead to buckets on the other end with Alic coming away with a pair of buckets in what was a 9-0 run to end the game before Appleton North would close things out 58-46.
The Lightning are now 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the FVA, while Oshkosh North drops to 3-5 and 1-4 in conference play.
Appleton North will now enjoy a nice two-week break before returning to action Jan. 3 at Kimberly. The game starts a stretch that will see the Lightning travel to all nine of the other Fox Valley Association schools before playing again at home on Feb. 7 against Kimberly. The Lightning will play their final four conference games at home.
Lightning 58, Spartans 46
Oshkosh North 20 26 – 46
Appleton North 33 25 – 58
OSHKOSH NORTH (46): Brianna Paulsen 17, Awut Alic 14, Morgan Kolodzik 9, Hailee Valdez 2, Sammie Leib 2, Alai Awak 2. FT: 6-10. 3-pointers 6 (Paulsen 3, Kolodzik 2, Alic 1). Record: 3-5, 1-4 Fox Valley Association.
APPLETON NORTH (58): Avery Werfal 24, Tay Maass 21, Ava Koleske 7, Amber Ziemer 4, Sophie Busch 2. FT: 11-16. 3-pointers 7: (Werfal 6, Koleske 1). Record: 5-4, 2-3 Fox Valley Association.