Appleton East girls basketball uses long ball to win at Appleton North
By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – The Appleton East girls basketball team headed across town to take on rival Appleton North on Monday night and the 3-pointer made all the difference for the Patriots in the Fox Valley Association matchup.
Appleton East connected on 14 triples to pick up the 76-42 road victory.
“This was a great win for us tonight,” Appleton East head coach Brian Paschen said. “I Really appreciated the way the kids bought in on the defensive end tonight which helped get our offense into a great rhythm early.”
Lindsey Gerard connected for a pair of triples early to put the Patriots up 6-0. Outside shooting was a massive part of East’s game all night, but to the Lightning’s credit they didn’t go down without a fight.
With the Patriots (10-5, 6-4 FVA) showing off their range from distance, it was Tay Maass imposing her will on the inside as the sophomore came away with several offensive rebounds early to keep the Lightning within striking distance early at 13-9. Maas led the way for North with 15 points as she was the lone Lightning in double figures.
“Tay is a key contributor to our team,” North head coach Brandon Reichenberger said. “She anchors our inside presence and when she really uses her strength and size, and plays aggressively on the offensive end, she can be tough to defend and tends to open up our perimeter players by drawing attention.”
It was at this point in the first half when the Patriots started to pull away as they continued to knock their shots down from the outside. Lilly Meulemans had five-straight points and Torie Neubauer was a key player in a 14-4 run as East grabbed a 27-13 lead.
Sophie Busch tried to keep things close for Appleton North, but the hot shooting for the Patriots continued as they ended the first half on a 17-5 run, with 13 of those points coming from Meulemans and Neubauer, to take a 46-20 lead into the break.
Already with a massive lead after one half of play, the 3-point shot continued to be a factor in the early stages of the second as Meulemans knocked down her third triple of the night to push the Patriots’ lead to 49-20.
“East has a group of hungry players and they like to get things going early from the outside,” Reichenberger said. “Meulemans and (Ella) Sweeney are really nice players for them and they shoot the ball extremely well. Their style of play complements each other very well and they also got contributions from Nuebauer and few others from the outside.”
Busch answered with a nice runner in the paint for two of her five points, with Maass picking up four straight shortly after. Throw in a steal and finish by Delaney Peterson for two of her four points and the Lightning were suddenly feeling it offensively as the 10-2 run brought things within 51-30.
Sweeney ended the brief run when she connected on her third triple of the game as part of a strong 15-point effort.
“We were very good offensively from start to finish tonight,” Paschen said. “The girls were very patient on the offensive end and did a great job sharing the basketball while letting things come to us. That led to several great looks and 14 made triples to help get things going for us.”
Leading 54-30 at this point, Marissa Schwartz added another 3-pointer to make it a 59-30 game with about eight minutes to go. Ilah Scherwinski did her best to answer with her only triple of the game, but when you are trailing 59-33 it is an uphill battle no matter how you look at it. Following that bucket, it was the Patriots who went on another big run as they seemed to have all the answers for the Lightning.
Schwartz started that run with a pair of free throws, but the Patriots saw several players get involved including Ella Jazdzweski and Lucy Doszak as the 10-2 run pushed the lead to 69-35. In total, the Patriots ended the game on a 22-12 run to finish off the Lightning (7-9, 5-5 FVA) 76-42.
“Overall, as a team we just simply didn’t play as well,” Reichenberger said. “As we prepared for this game and looked at what East would likely try to do, we expected to have a much better showing. We struggled offensively at times and didn’t shoot the ball very well from 3, which happens, but the biggest difference was on defense. We needed to compete with more energy and intensity and get stops to keep us in the game, and made too many fundamental errors.”
Patriots 76, Lightning 42
Appleton East 46 30 – 76
Appleton North 20 22 – 42
APPLETON EAST (76): Lucy Doszak 2 0-0 5, Ava Schwan 1 0-0 2, Jenna Ott 2 0-0 4, Lindsey Gerard 2 0-0 6, Marissa Schwartz 3 3-4 11, Lilly Meulemans 7 2-2 19, Torie Neubauer 4 2-2 13, Ella Sweeney 4 4-4 15, Ella Jazdzewski 0 1-2 1. FG: 25. FT: 12-14. 3-pointers: 14 (Neubauer 3, Meulemans 3, Sweeney 3, Gerard 2, Schwartz 2, Doszak 1). Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 10-5, 6-4 Fox Valley Association.
APPLETON NORTH (42): Shayna Williamson 1 2-2 5, Lexi Schuh 0 0-0 0, Addy Campbell 0 0-0 0, Sophie Busch 2 1-2 5, Ilah Scherwinski 2 2-2 7, Amber Ziemer 0 0-0 0, Lila Griffith 0 0-0 0, Avery Werfel 2 0-0 4, Delaney Peterson 2 0-0 4, Tay Maass 5 5-6 15, Ava Koleske 1 0-0 2. FG: 15. FT: 10-12. 3-pointers: 2 (Williamson 1, Scherwinski 1). Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 7-9, 5-5 Fox Valley Association.