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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Auburndale girls basketball team saw an opportunity and took advantage.
Auburndale overcame 30 turnovers and held Wausau Newman Catholic to just two field goals during a 12-minute stretch of the second half on its way to a 44-38 victory in a Marawood Conference South Division game Thursday night at Auburndale High School.
Auburndale remains undefeated at 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the conference, while Newman, ranked sixth in the initial wissports.net Division 5 state poll, falls to 3-1 and 1-1 in the Marawood South.
Newman was playing without starters Brianna Jankowski and Madison Tubbs, but still led 22-18 at halftime after forcing 20 Apaches’ turnovers.
Auburndale came out in the second half and used its own defensive pressure to turn the game around.
Auburndale held Newman to 1 of 12 shooting in the third quarter and scoreless for the first 5 minutes to take a 25-22 lead. The Apaches never trailed again.
Nicole Nikolay, who was scoreless in the first half, scored eight of her team-high 12 points in the decisive 17-5 third quarter for Auburndale.
“I mean, 21 turnovers in the first half and we were only down four?” Auburndale coach Liz Nagel said. “I just told them, ‘It’s the same stuff that we preach day in and day out, take care of the ball, be smart and they went out and did it and got the job done.
“We finally got the ball inside to Nicole and she put some points up. We got it into her and that changed the pace of the game.”
Auburndale built its lead to 37-27 on a basket by Nikolay with 6:30 to go before the Cardinals made one final run.
Kimberly Steif scored and Lauren LaPree hit two free throws to cut Auburndale’s lead to 37-33 with 3:52 left, however, Newman made only one basket the rest of the way.
Becky Willfahrt made a layup with 49 seconds to go following a turnover and Newman missed its final two shots from the field as the Apaches held on.
Auburndale finished with a 40-19 rebounding advantage.
“They did a great job defensively,” Nagel said. “For Newman, having their two main players down, that helped us out a lot too, so I’ll take that. It’s a great confidence booster going into the season. This was the main test for us in the conference right now.”
Auburndale plays at Pittsville on Tuesday.
Apaches 44, Cardinals 38
Wausau Newman 14 8 5 11 – 38
Auburndale 10 8 17 9 – 44
WAUSAU NEWMAN (38): Kimberly Steif 5-14 0-0 12, Chloe Chapman 0-4 2-2 0, Lauren LaPree 2-7 4-4 8, Abigail Connolly 1-5 2-5 4, Christina Grunow 0-4 3-4 3, Anna McCarty 3-9 3-6 9. FG: 11-43. FT: 14-21. 3-pointers: 2-13 (Steif 2-8, Connolly 0-3, Grunow 0-2). Rebounds: 19 (LaPree 5). Turnovers: 18. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-1, 1-1 Marawood South.
AUBURNDALE (44): Kendra Kundinger 0-2 0-2 0, Stafani Karl 1-2 0-0 2, Brianna Meyer 0-1 2-2 2, Mikayla Jankowski 3-4 2-4 8, Becky Willfahrt 3-7 0-1 7, Nicole Nikolay 5-12 2-2 12, Shannon Yahnke 3-6 3-3 9, Emma Steines 2-8 0-1 4, Melanie Brandl 0-0 0-0 0, Kayla Gotz 0-3 0-0 0. FG: 17-45. FT: 9-15. 3-pointers: 1-4 (Willfahrt 1-1, Jankowski 0-1, Steines 0-1, Nikolay 0-1). Rebounds: 40 (Nikolay 7). Turnovers: 30. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-0, 2-0 Marawood South.