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It was the final regular season girls basketball game Thursday night and a very meaningful game for three teams - Platteville, Prairie du Chien and Dodgeville.
What was at stake? If Dodgeville beat Prairie, that would assure Platteville sole possession of first place in the SWC. If Prairie beat Dodgeville and Richland Center beat Platteville, the Blackhawks and Lady Hillmen would share the SWC title.
Platteville lost to the Lady Hornets and held an 8-2 record, setting the stage for the other game to be a huge factor. But the Lady Dodgers came through for Platteville and slipped past the Blackhawks 42-41 and that not only gave Platteville the title, but it gave the Dodgers a tie for 2nd place in the with Prairie at 7-3.
The entire game was about as tight as the final score.
Prairie led 10-9 after the opening quarter, but Dodgeville took a 21-15 halftime lead.
Prairie came right back with a 10-5 advantage in period three and trailed by only one at 26-25.
That set the stage for the most offensive minded quarter of the contest, the fourth one - that ended in a 16-16 stalemate.
It was the final regular season game for seniors Caitlyn Bauer, Becca Veinberg, Sydney Dressler, Sam Arnold and Natalie Baumann.
Bauer got the start when Veinberg was ill that day and she came through big. She scored one point through three quarters, but hit a three pointer, a bucket on a drive, was fouled and made her free throw plus made two others from the charity stripe to score half of her team's fourth quarter points.
Sophomore Taylor Stanek, who was her team's leading point getter, hit a bucket and three big free throws down the stretch. Sophomore Megan Zoet drove home the other basket in the final frame.
Prairie junior McKenzie Banasik tried to match the Dodgers' performance in the fourth as she scored nine of her game-high 17 points down the stretch, Junior teammate Olivia Skemp added 11 on the night.
"Early on our pressure got to them,"said Dodgeville coach Josh Busch, speaking of the 11-point halftime lead. "However, we knew it would be a four quarter game."
"It was senior night and when the focus is on them, sometimes you lose focus on the game - but tonight we maintained our game focus," he added. "We got up 10 and we didn't panic when they made a run. We made just enough plays offensively to win."
"Caitlyn went on an 8-0 run all by herself. She usually doesn't start, but we tell the kids all the time they have to be ready when called on and she was tonight," Busch added. "Also, Brooke (Lee) had a couple of key rebounds for us in the last minutes."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
PdC 10 5 10 16-41
D 9 12 5 16-42
BOX SCORE
Prairie du Chien 41( fg, ft, tp) Skemp 4-3/6-11, Ariss 2-0-4, Check 0-1/2-1, Banasik 5-7/10-17, Moret 2-1/6-5, Rickleff 1-1/2-3. Totals 14-13/26-41. F-17.
Dodgeville 42: Stanek 5-3/5-14, Bauer 2-4/9-9, Crowley 3-1/2-7, Dressler 0-0-0, Zoet 4-0-8, Cushman 0-0-0, Baumann 0-0-0, Binsfeld 0-0-0, Lee 2-0-4, Arnold 0-0-0. Totals 16-8/16-42. F-19. 3-pointers: Stanek 1, Bauer 1.