Auburndale girls basketball team overcomes slow start, blows past Nekoosa

Auburndale senior guard Kelly Tomfohrde blows past a Nekoosa defender during the second quarter of Monday's nonconference girls basketball game at Auburndale High School. (Photo by Paul Lecker/MarshfieldAreaSports.com)

This story is sponsored by: Valley Communities Credit Union

By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com

AUBURNDALE – The game didn’t start well for the Auburndale girls basketball team, but after a sluggish 3 minutes, the Apaches were on top of their game.

Auburndale turned the ball over on its first six possessions and fell behind 4-0 before responding with a 22-0 run and blew out Nekoosa 40-18 in a nonconference game Monday night at Auburndale High School.

The Apaches made 10 of 13 shots from the field during the 22-0 run that spanned 11:25 and ended with a free throw by Lexi Brost with 1:37 to go in the half.

Four different players scored four points during the run, including Nicole Nikolay, who added a basket following a rebound just before the halftime buzzer to put Auburndale up 24-5 at the break.

“We came out like that and I was like, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be a long game,’” Auburndale coach Corey Manlick said. “We adjusted to their press, which I hadn’t put in yet because I didn’t expect it, so we adjusted to that. We broke it enough that we got some shots and they had to pull out of it. Overall, it was a great team effort. We made some mistakes, we need to clean that up before Thursday at Northland Lutheran.”

Auburndale continued its dominance to start the second half. Lindsay Gotz and Kayla Nikolay scored early for Auburndale to make it 27-5.

Nekoosa ended a 16-minute stretch without a field goal when Chyann Olson-Weiler made a basket at the 6:02 mark of the third quarter. The Papermakers closed the quarter with an 8-4 run, but didn’t score a field goal over the final 11:16 of the game.

Auburndale possess a veteran roster that includes six seniors in its normal nine-player rotation. That experience is invaluable when making in-game adjustments and overcoming slow starts like it did Monday.

“You can’t buy experience,” Manlick said. “These girls have that experience on the court. They just have to not think so much and let the game come to them. Once they do that, you can see with our 22-0 run, we can just go off. That’s the way it should be every night. If you come out the right way, play our man-to-man defense and get in their face, make the passes in our offense, you see what happens.”

Eight different Apaches scored, with Kayla Nikolay leading the way with eight points. Auburndale shot 50 percent from the floor (18 of 36), held Nekoosa to 4 of 28 and held a 23-18 rebounding advantage. Nicole Nikolay led the Apaches with seven rebounds.

Auburndale opens its Marawood Conference South Division schedule Thursday at Northland Lutheran.

Apaches 40, Papermakers 18
Nekoosa 4 1 8 5 – 18
Auburndale 9 15 8 8 – 40
NEKOOSA (18):
Lexi Brost 1-2 1-3 3, Desi Schuh 1-8 3-5 5, Mandee Elsen 0-1 0-0 0, Brittany Bredl 0-0 0-0 0, Renee DeMars 0-2 0-0 0, Xendra Marcouex 0-1 0-0 0, Allie Kleinhans 0-3 1-4 1, Haley Sorbo 1-4 2-2 4, Chyann Olson-Weiler 1-7 3-4 5. FG: 4-28. FT: 10-18. 3-pointers: 0-0. Rebounds: 18 (Kleinhans 3, Sorbo 3). Total fouls: 14. Fouled out: DeMars. Record: 2-1.
AUBURNDALE (40): Mikayla Jankowski 0-0 0-0 0, Emma Steines 0-1 0-0 0, Kayleigh Kundinger 3-3 0-0 6, Kayla Nikolay 4-5 0-0 8, Nicole Nikolay 3-4 0-0 6, Sam Karl 0-1 0-1 0, Katie Willfahrt 0-3 0-0 0, Kelly Tomfohrde 2-6 0-0 4, Lindsay Gotz 3-6 0-0 6, Becky Willfahrt 1-1 0-0 2, Liz Breu 1-2 2-3 4, Kayla Gotz 1-3 2-5 4, Melanie Brandl 0-1 0-0 0. FG: 18-36. FT: 4-8. 3-pointers: 0-3 (Karl 0-1, K. Willfahrt 0-1, Tomforhde 0-1). Rebounds: 23 (N. Nikolay 7). Total fouls: 18. Fouled out: none. Record: 3-0.