This story is sponsored by Dental Clinic of Marshfield
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls basketball team has turned to its defense to try to turn around its season.
The Tigers forced 21 turnovers and held Merrill to 33 percent shooting on their way to a 66-39 Wisconsin Valley Conference victory Friday night at Marshfield High School.
Marshfield won for the sixth time in its last eight games to improve to 8-5 overall and 3-3 in the WVC.
Tigers coach Heidi Michaelis said following a 63-50 loss to Stevens Point two weeks ago, she challenged her team.
“I really think that we have to make a commitment to defense and since the Point game, we’ve been hard on them,” Michaelis said. “If we’re not going to do what I want, there’s going to be consequences for it. It really is just a commitment to defense and a commitment to come to practice to get better.
“Honestly, since then, it’s been hard, but I think what they’re seeing now is that if they make that commitment, good things are going to happen.”
The Tigers played with passion from start to finish on Friday, forcing those 21 turnovers just in their half-court defense, and contesting nearly every shot attempt by Merrill.
Marshfield only trailed once, 7-5 midway through the first quarter after a 3-pointer by Merrill’s Dawn Leland. The Tigers finished the quarter on a 15-7 run keyed by three 3-pointers by Caitlin Michaelis and two steals and layups by Darian Molter.
After pushing the lead to 35-19 by halftime, Marshfield scored nine of the first 13 points of the third quarter and ended the period on a 6-0 run to take a 50-30 lead.
Ellie Kummer scored all nine of her points in the fourth quarter as the Tigers maintained their big lead.
Molter finished with 18 points and four steals, and Michaelis had 16 points for Marshfield.
“We can score points – that’s never really been an issue. It’s just the commitment on the defensive end,” Coach Michaelis said. “We’re not going full-court (defense) until we get our half-court in check. We were playing full-court, and bad things were happening. We were giving up too many easy baskets and easy looks, so we’ve really just made a commitment to our half-court, man-to-man defense.”
The Tigers return to action Tuesday with a nonconference home game against Chippewa Falls, and return to their Wisconsin Valley Conference schedule next Friday at Wausau West. Both games will be broadcast on WDLB-AM 1450 and wdlbwosq.com.
Tigers 66, Bluejays 39
Merrill 14 5 11 9 – 39
Marshfield 20 15 15 16 – 66
MERRILL (39): Dawn Leland 1-5 0-0 3, Lauren Hojan 1-3 2-2 4, Mariah Turenne 1-5 0-3 3, Anna Finnell 2-5 1-1 5, Morgan Wilde 0-0 0-0 0, Lindsay Krueger 2-7 2-4 7, Reegan Byer 4-12 0-0 8, Brianna LaMonica 3-5 2-2 9. FG: 14-42. FT: 7-12. 3-pointers: 4-15 (Leland 1-4, Turenne 1-4, Krueger 1-2, LaMonica 1-3, Byer 0-1, Finnell 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (LaMonica 5, Krueger 5). Turnovers: 21. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: none. Record: 8-5, 4-2 Wisconsin Valley Conference.
MARSHFIELD (66): Darian Molter 6-13 4-4 18, Natalie Zuelke 2-6 0-0 4, Caitlin Michaelis 6-9 2-3 16, Emily Goeppinger 1-5 0-0 2, Lauren Gilbertson 0-0 2-2 2, Makayla Zimmermann 1-4 0-0 2, Ellie Kummer 4-10 0-0 9, Kailey Hubler 1-4 0-0 2, Ellie Fehrenbach 4-9 2-2 10. FG: 25-60. FT: 10-11. 3-pointers: 6-20 (Michaelis 3-6, Molter 2-5, Kummer 1-5, Goeppinger 0-4). Rebounds: 26 (Kummer 5). Turnovers: 8. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: none. Record: 8-5, 3-3 Wisconsin Valley Conference.