This story is sponsored by: Chili Implement
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
STRATFORD – They call it March madness for a reason. Tournament basketball is a whole different season.
After downing Stratford by four points back on Dec. 5, No. 5-seed Abbotsford came to town to double down on the fourth seeded Tigers after dispatching Colby earlier in the week.
Neither team started strong and it seemed the first to get hot would probably win. That turned out to be the Tigers, who played a near flawless second half, winning 56-34 in a WIAA Division 4 girls basketball regional semifinal on Friday at Stratford High School.
Stratford (14-11) advances to Saturday’s D-4 regional final at McDonnel Central (23-2) in Chippewa Falls, starting at 7 p.m.
To say the game started slow would be a gross understatement as Abby held the lead at 7-4 with 10:15 left in the half.
Stratford didn’t take its first lead at 9-7 until the 6:40 mark on a lay-up by Tria Tubbs. Kayla Casperson’s bucket and two subsequent free throws by Casperson put the Tigers ahead 13-7 and they closed the half up 17-10. Abby had 13 turnovers and Stratford had eight in the opening 18 minutes.
“We’ve had like eight or nine practices,” said Stratford coach Tammie Christopherson, “and one game, and then we had nothing all this week. As a coach, sometimes you like to play that Tuesday game. After that initial start we got the rust knocked off. It’s like we weren’t running our offense. I thought we played an outstanding second half. I was real proud how we responded after losing to this team earlier.”
Turnovers killed the Falcons all game long. They turned it over on their first possession of the second half and Ashley Hollatz scored on a driving lay-up. In fact, the Tigers hit four of their first six second-half shots, then missed a couple before going 3-for-4 and turning up the screws on the defensive end, forcing the Falcons into nine second-half turnovers with just three of their own.
“We’re not going to lie.” continued Christopherson. “We struggle scoring sometimes. It’s been a rollercoaster for us this year. A lot of young players. We focused this week some on, it doesn’t matter about X’s and O’s so much as we need to drop some shots. A lot people contributed tonight.”
Abby got to within 12 in the second half at the nine-minute mark when Briseida Escalara drilled a three to make it 37-25, but that was close enough for the Tigers, who rang up 39 second-half points, shooting 11-for-21 from the field (16-for-36 for the game), and 16-for-18 from the charity stripe (22-for-27 overall).
Casperson led the Tigers with 17 points as eight players found the scoring column. Sommer Broadhead led the Falcons with 16.
Christopherson knew plenty about her next opponent, McDonell.
“They have been to state the last four years. They got bumped up to D4 and into our regional,” she said “They are good. But we’ve got no pressure. Time to play hard, throw it to the wind and just play. We’ll rise to the challenge and give them a tough game.”
Tigers 56, Falcons 34
Abbotsford 10 24 – 34
Stratford 17 39 – 56
ABBOTSFORD (34): Briseida Escalera 1 0-0 3, Sydney Falteisek 1 4-4 7, Azul Miranda 1 0-0 2, Nevaeh Treankler 1 0-1 2, McKinley Klabon 0 1-2 1, Sommer Broadhagen 6 2-4 16, Lillian Graun 1 0-0 3. FG: 10-39. FT: 8-13. 3-pointers: 4-17 (Falteisek 1, S. Broadhagen 1, Escalara 1, Graun 1). Turnovers: 22. Fouled out: none. Record: 13-12.
STRATFORD (56): Kayla Casperson 5 6-6 17, Laney Pankratz 1 3-4 6, Carly Pankratz 3 2-2 8, Gracie Schmidt 0 1-2 1, Kassedey Downey 0 2-2 2, Emily Zuelke 3 1-2 7, Ashley Hollatz 1 6-7 8, Tria Tubbs 3 1-2 7. FG: 16-36. FT: 22-27. 3-pointers: 2-10 (Casperson 1, L. Pankratz 1). Turnovers: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 14-11.