Appleton East uses strong defensive effort to defeat Oshkosh West in WIAA Division 1 girls basketball regional semifinal
By Dustin Riese
For AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – It’s never easy facing the same team three times in one season, let alone facing a conference foe, but that was what the Appleton East girls basketball team was up against on Friday as they welcomed in fellow Fox Valley Association foe Oshkosh West for a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal tilt.
After sweeping the Wildcats during the regular season with their second meeting much closer than the first, East not only had a chance to make it 3-for-3, but this game had so much more on the line.
Despite a sluggish first half from both sides, the Patriots (16-8) defense took over in the second half, holding the Wildcats to 17 points en route to a 57-44 victory and a trip to the Division 1 regional final at Hortonville (17-8) on Saturday.
“Outstanding effort from the girls tonight despite this not being one of our better games,” Appleton East head coach Brian Paschen said. “We knew that Oshkosh West is going to make it physical every time we play them and they did a great job of that in the first half. We didn’t respond to it well initially, but we have won games in various ways all season, and we found a way to get it done.”
After West’s Colleen Fitzpatrick opened the scoring with an easy layup, East’s Ella Jazdzewski responded with three quick points to put Patriots in front 3-2.
Appleton East would never trail again in the first half as Emilia MontMarquette put the Patriots in front by three, only to have Ava Strasser answer with a triple to the score at 5-5. Strasser had the hot hand most of the night for the Wildcats as she led all scorers with 16 points and displayed a nice touch inside the paint.
Appleton East didn’t waste any time responding as Lilly Meulemans connected on back-to-back triples, two of the three she had in the game, and just like that, the Patriots had an 11-5 lead.
East’s Torie Neubauer followed those triples with one of her own to push the Patriots lead to seven, before Oshkosh West (10-15) responded with a 7-0 run capped off by a Strasser bucket on the inside to it back up at 14-14.
The rest of the first half was a bit of a back-and-forth affair as the Patriots used a MontMarquette three to build up a late five-point lead only to have West answer with another Strasser put back to keep things close 28-27.
The Wildcats had a chance to grab the lead at the horn as a half-court heave from Joely Schelfhout was just off the mark, keeping the Patriots in front by two. Expecting more of the same in the second half, it was the Wildcats once again picking up the first bucket of the half as Schelfhout managed to get to the inside and drew a challenging and one-bucket.
Trailing by one in the early stages of the second half, it was another clutch triple from the freshman MontMarquette, whose corner three put the Patriots in front 32-30. They would never look back as back-to-back and-one plays from Neubauer and Jazdzewski broke the game open and gave East their largest lead of the night, 38-31.
“For some reason, we have bought into the defensive end of the floor this season, and we have held opponents down,” Paschen said. “Sure, you love to shoot the three and put up points on offense, but these girls know they are never out of a game if they play defense. In past years, we haven’t had the defense to fall back on, and this year, we do, which has been huge for us.”
Holding a 40-32 lead, it was time for the Patriots’ offense to take over as Neubauer began to have her way on the inside as part of her 11-point second half to finish with a team-high 16. MontMarquette and Jazdzewski were also part of the scoring binge as the Patriots stretched their lead to 47-32. All three of those girls finished with double-digit points in the victory, and it’s the type of balanced scoring every coach looks for during the season.
“The girls are starting to make a habit of having a balanced attack,” Paschen said. “It seems like we have four or five girls landing in double figures every game, which makes things very easy on a coach. Every day, we preach about sharing the basketball, and these girls have always done a great job of that. They don’t care who gets the most points, just as long as we have the most in the end.”
With the win, the sixth-seeded Patriots will travel to another FVA conference rival in Hortonville as the No. 3-seeded Polar Bears took down No. 14 Wisconsin Rapids 54-40. Hortonville split with the Patriots during the regular season, and have been dealing with a rash of injuries late in the season, with University of Maryland recruit Rainey Welson on that list.
“Everyone knows that Hortonville is an extremely talented team, but they have been dealing with a lot of injuries late in the year,” Paschen said. “Because of that, you don’t know who is playing and who isn’t, making it very tough to prepare for them. Coach Clouther is a solid coach, and he is going to have something dialed up for us, and we need to be ready to go.”
Patriots 57, Wildcats 44
Oshkosh West 27 17 – 44
Appleton East 28 29 – 57
OSHKOSH WEST (44): Heiman 1 0-0 3, Schelfout 1 3-5 5, Nelson 0 1-3 1, Stauffacher 2 0-0 5, panske 1 0-0 2, Strasser 6 3-5 16, Fitzpatrick 1 1-2 3, Tigert 1 0-0 2, Rasmussen 2 3-3 7. FG: 15. FT: 11-18. 3-pointers: 3 (Heiman 1, Stauffacher 1, Strasser 1). Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Tigert. Record: 10-15.
APPLETON EAST (57): Ava Schwan 0 0-2 0, Brooklyn Feller 0 1-2 1, Aubrie Erickson 0 2-2 2, Lilly Meulemans 3 0-0 9, Torie Neubauer 5 5-5 16, Emilia Mont Marquette 4 0-0 11, Ella Sweeney 1 2-2 4, Ella Jazdzewski 4 6-8 14, Allena Neubauer 0 0-0 0. FG: 17. FT: 16-21. 3-pointers: 5 (Meulemans 3, T. Neubauer 1, MontMarquette 1). Fouls: 16. Fouled out: none. Record: 16-8.