Appleton East girls basketball powers past Appleton West

By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com

APPLETON – One of the oldest crosstown rivalries in the state of Wisconsin is the Appleton East and Appleton West battle. Tuesday marked the first of two girls basketball meetings between the two as the Appleton East Patriots hit the road to face off against the Appleton West Terrors in a Fox Valley Association contest.

Whether it be the size of Tori Neubauer on the inside, or the overall shooting ability of Brooklyn Feller, Ava Schwan or Ella Sweeney, it was the Patriots making quick work of the Terrors to pick up a 65-29 victory.

“I loved the effort, especially on defense,” East head coach Brian Paschen said on the win. “Great ball pressure. Could have been more selective on offense.”

The Patriots came out of the gates strong with Sweeney connecting for the first four points of the game. Allysen Buss did her part to keep things close early by knocking down a corner three for the Terrors, but with the Patriots answering with seven unanswered points, five coming from Neubauer, East took an early 11-3 lead.

Despite the Terrors offense getting off to a slower start than they would’ve liked, Appleton West continued to battle back with Madison Milhaupt and Lydia Barry connecting on a pair of 3-pointers to pull the Terrors within 17-11 midway through the first half.

That was as close as West would get as it was all Appleton East from there. Another Sweeney triple sparked a 19-1 run to end the first half and saw the Patriots take a 36-12 lead at the break.

Sweeney accounted for nine points in the run, including seven-straight, and Schwan capped it off with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to push the lead to 24.

“Our girls thrive on the energy we get from our defense and that gets us out in transition,” Paschen said. “That run came from many easy fast break points.”

Facing a massive deficit to begin the second half, Appleton West knew it had work to do. Both offenses came out firing. Barry hit a 3-pointer for West, only to have Aubrey Erickson and the Patriots answer to push the lead out to 34.

It was at this point in the game when both sides began to get sloppy as neither team did much scoring down the stretch. Feller was the one exception as she knocked down a late triple to cap off the scoring in what was an emphatic 65-29 victory for East.

“Sweeney led the way for us tonight, but too many people get caught up in just stats,” Paschen said. “Torie could have padded her stats tonight, but she really gets the importance of team play and getting others involved.”

Appleton West coach Julie Ziemer is looking for the Terrors to learn from the game and continue to grow.

“We prepared for East off film,” Ziemer said. “They were a threat inside and out with some of their players. They set screens that we needed to talk through but didn’t. That worked all game for them.

“We need to learn to play as a team and trust each other.  We need to learn and accept what each player brings to the team and allow them to be successful in those roles.”

Appleton East is now 4-6 overall and bumps its FVA mark to 4-3, while the Terrors fall to 1-10 overall and 0-7 in conference play.

Both teams continue FVA play Friday with Appleton West traveling to Neenah and Appleton East hosting Oshkosh West.

Patriots 65, Terrors 29
Appleton East   36   29   –   65
Appleton West   12   17   –   29
APPLETON EAST (65): Ella Mielke 0 0-0 0, Ava Schwan 2 0-2 6, Jenna Ott 3 0-0 6, Brooklyn Feller 1 0-0 3, Aubrie Erickson 2 0-0 5, Torie Neubauer 6 0-0 14, Emilia MontMarquette 1 0-0 2, Grace Fecteau 0 0-0 0, Ella Sweeney 9 0-0 20, Ella Jazdzewski 1 5-5 7, Allena Neubauer 0 0-0 0, Ambria Fischer 1 0-0 2. FG: 26. FT: 5-7. 3-pointers: 8 (Schwan 2, T. Neubauer 2, Sweeney 2, Erickson 1, Feller 1). Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 4-6, 4-3 Fox Valley Association.
APPLETON WEST (29): Kayden Smit 1 0-0 2, Lydia Barry 3 0-0 8, Addyson Knoebel 1 1-2 3, Madison Milhaupt 2 2-3 8, Neita McClellan 0 0-0 0, Allysen Buss 3 0-2 8, Ali Raddatz 0 0-0, Schuchart 0 0-1 0. FG: 10. FT: 3-8. 3-pointers: 5 (Barry 2, Buss 2, Milhaupt 1). Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-10, 0-7 Fox Valley Association.