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MarshfieldAreaSports.com
NEILLSVILLE – The 2011-12 season couldn’t have started much worse for the Spencer girls basketball team.
The Rockets didn’t score in the first quarter and fell behind by 20 before their first points in dropping a 50-25 decision to Neillsville in the Cloverbelt Conference East Division and season opener for both teams on Thursday night at Neillsville High School.
McKenzie Trunkel led a balanced scoring attack with 10 points for the Warriors, hitting 3 of 4 shots from 3-point range. Jenny Lindner added nine points, Corina Craig had eight and Caitlynne Naughton and Alleah Voight each had six for Neillsville.
The story of the game was Neillsville’s relentless 1-2-2 full court zone defense. The Rockets made just 8 of 31 shots from the field and had 30 turnovers. Spencer compounded the problem by making just 7 of 20 free throws.
“It’s nice to play them at the start and it’s a good barometer to see where we match up and lets us know where we stand,” Spencer coach Dan Brodziski said. “We’ve got a little ways to go yet, but it was a good learning curve today and everything that happened today we can fix. It’s a matter of staying positive and coming to practice tomorrow and fixing what we need to fix. We’ll be a better team down the road.”
Spencer did have its moments, but was never able to sustain them for very long.
Neillsville led 11-0 after the first quarter and went ahead 20-0 after Lindner scored five points and Trunkel had four in the first 3:24 of the second quarter, but Spencer closed the half with a 6-2 run highlighted by a 3-pointer from Aubrie Bissonette.
Spencer held its own for the first five minutes of the third quarter before Neillsville closed the period with an 8-0 run and scored the first two points of the fourth quarter to open up a 39-13 lead.
Kyleigh Hebert scored four of her team-high seven points early in the fourth but it was much too late.
“It was the little things that seemed to kill us tonight,” Brodziski said. “The passing game, the rebounding … like I said, those are all things that we can fix. We just have to trust our teammates more and play more as a team. I can sense in practice that they aren’t quite there yet.”
Last season, Spencer opened its Cloverbelt East season with a 40-11 loss at home to Neillsville, only to rebound to complete a 20-4 season. The fact that the six-time defending conference champion Warriors can stifle anyone wasn’t lost on Brodziski, who said he knows the Rockets will turn things around.
Spencer returns four starters from that team, many of whom are playing their fourth year on the varsity.
“We’ve got a good group of girls,” Brodziski said. “They’ve got a great attitude, they work hard in practice and it’s been good so far. This wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for in our first game, obviously, but I don’t think we expected to be like the Packers and go undefeated. With the girls we’ve got, the future is bright.”
Spencer returns to action on Dec. 9 at Loyal.
Warriors 50, Rockets 25
Spencer 0 6 7 12 – 25
Neillsville 11 11 15 13 – 50
SPENCER (25): Krystal Weier 1-5 1-4 4, Alicia Endreas 0-2 0-0 0, Claire Drews 0-1 0-4 0, Kailyn Anderson 0-0 0-2 0, Courtney Schulz 1-5 1-4 3, Tara Matter 2-7 0-0 4, Mikayla Mlsna 0-0 0-0 0, Aubrie Bissonette 2-5 0-0 5, Kyleigh Hebert 2-4 3-4 7, Tara Kramer 0-0 0-0 0, Tynae Phillips 0-2 2-2 2. FG: 8-31. FT: 7-20. 3-pointers: 2-5 (Weier 1-3, Bissonette 1-1, Drews 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (Schulz 8). Turnovers: 30. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: Matter. Record: 0-1 overall and Cloverbelt Conference East Division.
NEILLSVILLE (50): Alyssa Anding 2-3 1-2 5, Sammie Larabee 0-1 0-0 0, Kaitlynne Crothers 1-2 0-0 2, Jenny Lindner 4-12 0-0 9, McKenzie Trunkel 3-5 1-2 10, Caitlynne Naughton 3-4 0-0 6, Lindsey Opelt 0-0 2-2 , Kesley Poeschel 1-5 0-0 2, Katrina Peterson 0-1 0-0 0, Kendie Pfeiffer 0-1 0-0 0, Taylor Gleissner 0-0 0-0 0, Courtney Poeschel 0-0 0-0 0, Alleah Voight 3-7 0-2 6, Corina Craig 4-4 0-2 8, Molly Attoe 1-3 0-0 2. FG: 21-46. FT: 4-10. 3-pointers: 4-10 (Trunkel 3-4, Lindner 1-4, Crothers 0-1, K. Poeschel 0-1). Rebounds: 26 (Voight 4). Turnovers: 20. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: none. Record: 1-0 overall and Cloverbelt East.