EVANSVILLE - The Brandon-Evansville girls basketball team trailed by as much as 19 (33-14) in the final of the minutes of the first half in its game against the Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley Wolverines on Monday.
But starting with a Kylee Dingwall three-pointer in the final moments of the first half, the Chargers clawed their way back and eventually made it a five-point game (43-38) with 7:45 left in the game.
With solid free throw shooting and defense, the Wolverines extended their lead to 15 points by as the final buzzer sounded and won 64-49.
“Our legs got a little bit tired at the end,” B-E head coach Steve Schreiber said. “We got a little grabby and got them on the free throw line. I think it came down to us having tired legs at the end and them making free throws.”
Jessica Moberg led the C-G-B offense with 21 points on the night.
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“She couldn’t miss,” Schreiber said. “ And if there's anybody we didn't want to have on the line, it was her. It got to the point where if we put it got a little closer, I think maybe we could’ve tested a couple of their other girls.”
The Wolverines improved to 7-7 (3-5 Section 6A) with the win, while the Chargers fell to 5-11 (3-9 Section 6A) but have seen a lot of success and improvement in recent games, including Monday’s.
Dingwall anchored the Chargers’ second half run and finished with a game-high 25 points.
“She can do so many things,” Schreiber said. “She gets to the hoop and scores at the hoop. She’s got a very nice jump shot, but she can also finish layups with her moves. She can shoot well and at the free throw line, and that’s a testament to the time she puts in at the gym. She was a 10,000 makes girl for us last season, she gets in the gym on the weekend, and she’s late to leave the gym every single night.”
The Wolverines jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the game with two baskets in the first 15 seconds of the game.
The Chargers were held scoreless for the first five minutes of the first half but started to get a little momentum going.
CGB led 16-10 with 7:18 left in the first half and started to extend its lead to double digits thanks to some three-pointers and shutdown defense.
However, B-E responded well and made it a close game.
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“I felt like the first half, I got away from doing what we're good at,” Schreiber said. “I had some thoughts of going into a zone a little bit and maybe negating some of their driving abilities, and we really haven't been that kind of a team all year. I'm kicking myself pretty hard for that right now because I feel like he gave up about eight points when we went into it and then they kind of found their shot after that. So I put a lot of this on me. I told the girls that at halftime, but they came out and battled. The big thing with the first half is I feel like we were stuck on 10 points forever.”
Joining Dingwall in double figures for B-E was Haddy Baune, who had 11 points.
The Chargers came into this game having won four out of their last six and are in their first season with Schreiber at the helm.
“I think we where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to be going,” Schreiber said. “That's the whole Jimmy Valvano speech from back in the early 90s. We were at a place where they didn't really understand what I wanted from them. I was the new coach, and they were new players. We started with eight players on our varsity bench, but we're playing 11 right now. We started with one offense, and now we've got three offensive systems. We were not very good on defense and rebounding, but we’ve improved immensely with those. Where we're at right now is a team that showed that we can grow and that we have grown. I think we’re proving that we can hang with anybody that we’re playing that we could see in the first round of the playoffs.”
B-E hosts Battle Lake (1-15, 0-13 Section 6A) on Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.
C-G-B - 33 31 - 64
B-E - 17 32 - 49
B-E SCORING - Grace Otto, 5 points; Taylor Dingwall, 2 points; Skylar Bitzan, 2 points; EmmaLee Brethorst, 2 points; Haddy Baune, 11 points; Kylee Dingwall, 25 points; Maddy Anderson, 2 points
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C-G-B SCORING - Addison Ward, 1 point; Jessica Moberg, 21 points; Chloe Cardwell, 3 points; Grace Cardwell, 10 points; Abygail Sigler, 10 points; Birkeley Herberg, 2 points; Grace Groebner, 4 points; Emily Kellen, 13 points
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