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WIAA Division 5 private school Wisconsin Rapids Assumption slipped by the previously unbeaten Barneveld girls basketball team 44-41 in a non-conference contest played Saturday afternoon.
Coming in the Royals were ranked fourth in D5 with an 8-0 record while the Eagles stood at number two with their 10-0 log.
It was a classic hard nosed contest that came down to the final shot.
Barneveld held an 11-8 lead after the first quarter, but Assumption led at 23-20 at the midway point.
A flourish of three pointers by the Eagles gave them the lead going into the third frame as during the third junior Hailey Kleppe kissed a shot from the side off the glass while senior Madi Laube and freshman Hannah Whitish both swished shots from long range from out front.
Barneveld's 15-8 margin in the third put them up 35-31 with eight minutes to go.
Assumption came up with a 13-6 margin in the fourth, but didn't take the lead until midway through. At that point it looked as if the last team to take a shot would win as both teams traded buckets on the next several possessions. And that almost proved to be true.
Royal junior Mary Sigler made a runner in the lane and was fouled with about 16 seconds remaining. Her bucket put them ahead 42-41. She missed the ensuing free throw, but the Eagles missed on their end with the go ahead shot.
Forced to foul after a miss with 1.8 seconds remaining, the Eagles put Assumption 6'1" freshman Gena Grundhoffer at the line. She swished both chances and the lead was three at 44-41.
On the inbound play, Whitish took a shot 2/3 the length of the floor that banged off the backboard and just missed hitting the rim after the glance as the final horn sounded.
Sigler finished the game with 13 points to lead the Royals in scoring with Grundhoffer adding 13.
Assumption freshman Macie Zurfluth hit all five of her points in the fourth quarter, including a big three pointer. Sigler and Grundhof-fer both had four points in that frame with those three players accounting for all 13 their team scored.
Barneveld's Whitish led all scorers with 15 points, eight coming in the first quarter. Sophomore Rachel Slaney added 10 with six coming in the third frame.
Slaney garnered 9 of her team's 26 rebounds. Assumptioned totaled 22 boards.
Whitish had four assists with Laube dishing out three.
Whitish also came up with four of her team's eight steals. Assumption had six thefts.
For the game, the Eagles were 16/50 from the field for 32%. Assumption hit 16 of 44 for 36.4% 
"We just don't see that physicalness in the teams we normally play," said Barneveld coach Jim Myers following the game. "It put Rachel on the bench too long."
He said his team gave up too many second chance points in the first half and that's what led to Assumption's lead.
"We took care of that pretty well in the second half and only let them score that way once," he added.
"We didn't get very many open looks as they played very tough defense," Myers said about his opponent. "Both teams played tough defense."
"We had a nice run in the third quarter and had our chances down the stretch. It was just one of those times things weren't going in."
"They are one of the top two teams in the state that we'll play," he said. "We follow this with a couple of tough games. We'll know more of where we're at after that."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
ASSUMPTION 8 15 8 13-44
BARNEVELD 11 9 15 6-41
BOX SCORE
Assumption 44 (fg, ft, tp) Wanta 1-0-3, Sigler 5-2/3-13, Zurfluth 2-0-5, Grundhoffer 3-5/6-11, Birkhauser 2-1/3-5, Skibba 3-0/1-7. Totals 16-8/13-44. F-13. FO-Skibba. 3-pointers: Sigler 1, Zurfluth 1, Skibba 1, Wanta 1.
Barneveld 41: Udelhofen 0-0-0, Sporle 1-2/2-4, Straubhaar 0-0-0, Whitish 6-0-15, Laube 4-0-9, Evans 0-0-0, Slaney 4-2/4-10, Carden 0-0-0, Oimoen 0-0-0. Totals 16-4/6-41. F-16. 3-pointers: Whitish 3, Laube 1, Kleppe 1.