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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
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MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls basketball team has been struggling with finishing off opponents, making free throws and taking care of the ball with the game on the line.
Friday night against Merrill, the Tigers did a better job at all three things and used a dominating second half to pull away from the Bluejays 47-30 in a Wisconsin Valley Conference game at Marshfield High School.
The Tigers trailed 18-17 with 2 minutes left in the first half before Alyssa Brenner drilled a 3-pointer and Taylor Varsho scored off a rebound to put Marshfield up 22-18.
Merrill tied the game at 22-22 on a basket by Renee Sladek one minute into the third quarter before Marshfield systematically pulled away for its seventh-straight victory.
Leah Ripp hit a 3-pointer, Eleni Seitz made two straight hoops and Brenner sank two free throws to put Marshfield up 31-24. The Tigers never led by less than five the rest of the way.
“We went in at halftime and our defense was not up to Coach’s (Heidi Michaelis) standards,” said Brenner, who finished with nine points. “When we went into the locker room and she said we need to play with more intensity, we’re Marshfield and that’s what we do, let’s play defense. We came out in the second half a lot stronger.”
After nearly blowing healthy leads in each of their last two games, the Tigers were able to pull away.
Marshfield was 8-for-8 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and made its final 12 attempts of the game as it outscored Merrill 25-10 in the second half.
Varsho finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, Seitz added 12 points and nine rebounds for Marshfield, which improves to 11-2 overall and remains perfect at 6-0 in the Wisconsin Valley.
“I don’t think at halftime we were happy with the effort. We know we could have played harder,” Michaelis said. “Whenever you’re playing against a zone like that and don’t create tempo, it’s hard to pull away. That was our goal, to play a lot harder on the defensive end.”
Tigers 47, Bluejays 30
Merrill 10 10 6 4 – 30
Marshfield 10 12 11 14 – 47
MERRILL (30): Emma Sowieja 1-1 0-0 2, Ruth Leland 1-1 0-0 3, Liz Smith 0-2 0-0 0, Lindsay Krueger 2-4 0-0 4, Ellen Donner 1-2 0-2 2, Jourdyn Mootz 3-6 2-2 9, Aly Brandvold 2-7 0-0 4, Marissa Bartz 0-2 0-0 0, Renee Sladek 2-5 0-0 4, Andi English 1-7 0-0 2. FG: 13-37. FT: 2-4. 3-pointers: 2-4 (Leland 1-1, Mootz 1-2, Krueger 0-1). Rebounds: 15 (Krueger 4). Turnovers: 13. Total fouls: 14. Fouled out: none. Record: 2-11, 2-4 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (47): Mary Wolff 0-0 0-0 0, Taylor Varsho 6-17 6-8 19, Tiffany Stargardt 0-1 0-0 0, Leah Ripp 1-5 0-0 3, Sarah Wolff 1-2 2-2 4, Alyssa Brenner 2-7 4-4 9, Becky Boehning 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney Bauer 0-0 0-0 0, Eleni Seitz 5-8 2-3 12, Brianna Hill 0-0 0-0 0. FG: 15-40. FT: 14-17. 3-pointers: 3-13 (Varsho 1-5, Brenner 1-5, Ripp 1-3, S. Wolff 0-1). Rebounds: 30 (Seitz 9, Varsho 7). Turnovers: 11. Total fouls: 8. Fouled out: none. Record: 11-2, 6-0 Wisconsin valley Conference.