This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Steve Pilz
For MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls basketball team had its opening game at home against a Medford squad that had a game under their belt.
Perhaps that was the difference as the Tigers fell 49-40 on Thursday night at the Marshfield High School Fieldhouse.
It would be easy to say that it was a typical first game, but there were a lot of turnovers, especially by the home team.
The Tigers turned the ball over 15 times in the first half and 11 times in the second, as opposed to only 13 total by Medford. A fact not lost on Marshfield coach Taylor Varsho.
“We’ve got to take care of the ball.” Varsho said. “The girls know that. We got the first game jitters out. It’s a learning experience. We’ve got a lot of new faces. A lot of young athletes, so we can only grow from here.”
The teams were tied at halftime at 18-18, but Medford began to pull away in the second half despite struggling at the foul line.
The Raiders boosted their lead to 43-32 with 3:17 left in the game.
The Tigers quickly cut that lead to five at 43-38 on two free throws by the Paige Preston. Unfortunately for the Tigers, that coincided with the Raiders finding their stroke at the line with Sierra Hanson drilling a pair down the stretch and high-scorer Marissa Fronk going 5-6 in that same time as she finished with a game-high 18 points.
“I think we’ll compete,” continued Varsho. “We’ve got a chance to compete. We had a couple faces that were not out there tonight, but we can grow as a team and get better.
“Rebounding is another big thing. We’re going to be small in the conference. We’re not tall. We just gotta work on how to box out and things should come together.”
Kaydee Johnson was the only Tiger in double figures, finishing with 17 points.
“I think we had a long two weeks,” Johnson said. “We had some double practices. I think we worked hard as a team and this is just a start. We only have three returners from varsity, so it’s a fresh beginning and we’re trying to see how we fit as a team.”
Medford’s Sierra Hanson was the other double-digit scorer for the Raiders with 10.
The Tigers will be back in action Tuesday at Lakeland.
Raiders 49, Tigers 40
Medford 18 31 – 49
Marshfield 18 22 – 40
MEDFORD (49): Sierra Hanson 2 5-8 10, Lydia Pernsteiner 2 0-0 4, Rynn Ruesch 1 0-0 2, Autumn Krause 1 0-0 2, Brynn Rau 2 0-0 5, Marissa Fronk 5 6-9 18, Laurissa Klapatauskas 1 0-2 2, Katie Brehm 2 1-2 6. FG: 16-50. FT: 12-23. 3 pointers: 5-16 (Fronk 2, Brehm, Hanson, Rau). Turnovers: 13. Fouled out: Brehm. Record: 2-0.
MARSHFIELD (40): Madison Voss 1 0-0 2, Kaydee Johnson 7 0-0 17, Danielle Minsas 1 0-0 3, Desirae Weisenberger 3 2-3 8, Paige Preston 1 6-7 8, Samantha Hoch 1 0-0 2. FG: 14-42. FT: 8-10. 3 pointers: 4-16 (Johnson 3, Minsaas). Turnovers: 26. Fouled out: none. Record: 0-1.