Sometimes, even the best teams have an ugly win on their resume.
After defeating state-ranked Hayfield the previous week, the Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton girls’ basketball team traveled to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, a team they beat 70-29 in their last matchup.
The Buccaneers proved that no team should assume that a win will be easy based on the past. Their team had the Lady Dawgs on the ropes for most of the game, including a 7-0 start. A great effort by WEM, combined with uncharacteristic turnovers, missed shots, and JWP’s overall mishandling of the ball, meant that some last-minute heroics were needed to steal a 57-52 victory from the Bucs.
“We all recognized that we did not have a good game,” said Head Coach Brandon Goebel. “I think by the end of it, we had over 20 turnovers. You can’t do that and be successful. We are lucky that we were able to win this game…we probably shouldn’t have. Credit to WEM. They played with more energy than we did tonight.”
As mentioned above, WEM took off with a 7-0 start. Katie Olson broke the dry spell with a two-pointer, but shots weren’t falling as well for JWP. They nearly fell behind by double digits multiple times. It took a team effort and, quite frankly, some luck for JWP to stay within the game.
For instance, there were several times when JWP couldn’t hang onto the ball. 7th-grader Jacelynn Mulder had the awareness to slap the ball in midair to keep it in play. Olson tiptoed the line to get it to Nevaeh Weimert for a three-pointer to tie things 18-18.
Still, WEM kept the energy, and a three-point buzzer-beater by Bucs senior Kaitlyn LaFrance kept the momentum in their favor at halftime, 28-21.
Olson opened the scoring with a two-pointer in the second half, followed by a three. Mikayla Wheelock got fouled after attempting a three from the wing, and she sank all three free throws. From there, it was a back-and-forth game. Mulder fought hard to get some points in the paint, with Weimert shooting from three and Ellie Morsching pushing to get some scoring opportunities. But WEM responded each time, including hitting a three-pointer for a 52-50 lead with less than two minutes left in the game.
As someone once said, captains can be part of the effort, but in games like these, they need to step up and be the player who pulls their team out of a slump. While Weimert was providing solid offense all night and Kwynn Krause was doing well on defense, it was Olson who came through in the clutch. She tied things with a quick fast break layup. Then she stole the ball from WEM when they were setting up the play from their own end. In just two seconds, she scored four points.
Late in the game, WEM was desperate to get the ball back, and Olson was accidentally shoved into the front of the announcers’ table, drawing a technical foul. She padded the narrow lead to two scores in the final seconds with the resulting free throw tries and helped the team escape WEM with the 57-52 thriller.
Although Goebel felt Olson was like the rest of the team in lacking energy throughout the game, he did praise her efforts in the final minutes. “She found a way to figure it out in the last two minutes, and she’s probably the reason we won,” he commented. “She’s been there and has the experience. We’ve had a lot of games like this one this year, so I think that’s helped as well.”
Olson ended up leading the team in points with 16 on the evening, with four rebounds and four assists. Weimert contributed 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Ashlynn Wolff had nine points and led the team in rebounds with eight, with Wheelock providing eight points and four rebounds. Mulder had five points and six rebounds, while Morsching provided four points and four rebounds.
The girls are looking to put this one behind them despite the win. “I’m hoping it’s just an off-night and not a trend,” Goebel commented. “We’ll be facing Blooming Prairie, which has improved a lot between last year and this season. We have to be prepared.”
Sadly for them, they will have to wait to play Blooming Prairie, as the game was postponed due to the cold weather that hit the area on Friday, January 23, and forced both schools to close for the day.
