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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Taylor Varsho hit seven 3-pointers, tying her own school record for most 3s in a game, and scored 26 points to lead the Marshfield girls basketball team to a 54-40 win over Wisconsin Rapids on Friday night at Marshfield High School.
Varsho hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help the Tigers jump out to a 16-6 lead. She added two more in the second quarter as Marshfield outscored the Raiders 16-7 to take a 32-13 advantage by halftime.
Rapids got no closer than 13 in the second half as Marshfield won its 52nd straight Wisconsin Valley Conference game and improved to 8-3 and 5-0 in the conference. Rapids falls to 10-4 and 4-2 in conference play.
“Taylor played very comfortable tonight and when she plays comfortable, good things happen,” Marshfield coach Heidi Michaelis said. “She made some crazy shots, some long shots, lots of shots, but even more than that she made some great passes for her teammates and rebounded the ball really well. She had a complete game and made everyone around her better.”
Tiffany Stargardt scored six of her 13 points in the second quarter and Varsho hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 2:29 to help Marshfield open up its 19-point halftime lead.
The Raiders had a 7-0 spurt late in the third quarter to close the gap to 14 but Darian Molter’s three-point play with 1.4 seconds to go in the third, and a three-point play by Stargardt early in the fourth opened the Tigers’ lead back up to 20 and they coasted from there.
Nicole Slovensky scored 16 points to lead Wisconsin Rapids.
As Marshfield heads into the second half of the season, Michaelis said
“Through the course of the season you’re always going to have ups and downs, some really good quarters and some not-so-good quarters,” she said. “What we’re seeing is more good quarters and less of the bad. More than anything, I think defensively we’re happy with the improvement we’ve made just in the last three weeks. It’s a credit to the kids.”
Varsho’s 26 points now gives her 1,090 for her career and leaves her 151 points shy of breaking Carlin McClary’s school record set from 1975-78.
Marshfield plays a nonconference game at Lakeland on Tuesday and returns to WVC action next Friday at Merrill.
Tigers 54, Raiders 40
Wisconsin Rapids 6 7 14 13 – 40
Marshfield 16 16 12 10 – 54
WISCONSIN RAPIDS (40): Hailee Frank 2 0-0 5, Nicole Slovensky 7 0-0 16, Jennie Nicolaus 0 0-0 0, Maisie Langholff 1 0-0 2, Elizabeth Morrison 4 0-0 8, Shelby Steinke 2 3-6 7, Mariah Richardson 0 0-0 0, Allie Paitel 1 0-0 2. FG: 17. FT: 3-6. 3-pointers: 3 (Slovensky 2, Frank 1). Rebounds: 14 (Steinke 4). Fouls: 12. Fouled out: none. Record: 10-4, 4-2 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (54): Ellie Kummer 0 0-0 0, Taylor Varsho 7 5-8 26, Tiffany Stargardt 5 3-3 13, Darian Molter 1 1-1 3, Caitlin Michaelis 2 0-0 5, Sara Fuller 0 0-0 0 Leah Ripp 1 0-0 2, Courtney Bauer 0 0-2 0, Ellie Fehrenbach 2 1-4 5. FG: 18. FT: 10-18. 3-pointers: 8 (Varsho 7, Michaelis 1). Rebounds: 27 (Varsho 8, Stargardt 7). Fouls: 6. Fouled out: none. Record: 8-3, 5-0 Wisconsin Valley Conference.