December 4, 2014 at 11:39 a.m.
Eagles pull away from Pointers
The Mineral Point girls basketball team found that out Monday night against the defending Division 5 state champion Barneveld Golden Eagles.
For the first three quarters, it was Hannah Whitish. For the final eight minutes, it was Rachel Slaney. All in all, seven different Eagles scored as the visitors cruised to the 73-47 win.
Jessica Schultz got the Pointers on the board first with a hoop at the 7:09 mark of the first quarter, but Barneveld went on a 7-0 run, five from Hannah Whitish. The Eagles' center, Maggie Oimoen, picked up her second foul early with 5:03 to go and had to take a seat. The pressure defense Barneveld is famous for created a lot of turnovers, but it also got the Eagles in some foul trouble, putting Mineral Point in the one and one bonus with three minutes left in the first quarter. Hannah Whitish tallied nine points in the frame, and another hoop from Schultz pulled the Pointers within 19-11 at the end of one.
Mineral Point stared the second quarter with a 6-0 run that included two free throws from McKenzie Schmitz and baskets from Carlie Qualley and Myah Aschliman, to trim the Eagle lead to just 21-17. Barneveld clamped down and responded with a 12-0 run, seven from Hannah Whitish and five from Mia Whitish, to take command at 33-17. The Pointers, rather Sydney Staver, outscored the Eagles 9-2 over the final 2:28 of the first half to make the score 35-26 in favor of Barneveld at the break.
Barneveld's token pressure returned to start the second half, but the scoring was generally back and forth between the two teams. Point found success on the inside with Schultz, who notched nine points in the frame. Hannah Whitish continued her consistent performance with seven third quarter points to keep the Eagles in front 52-39.
All subs started the fourth quarter for Mineral Point and Barneveld, behind Rachel Slaney, took advantage by going 12-0 at the beginning of the period to foil any hope of a Pointer comeback. She tallied 12 of her 19 points in the final eight minutes.
Hannah Whitish led all scorers with her game high 27 point performance. Slaney added 19. Mia Whitish also cracked double digits with 10.
Schultz was the top Pointer with 15 and Staver added 11.
"Rachel scored 19 points and she only played two quarters as she was in some foul trouble," commented Barneveld coach Jim Myers. "Hannah played extremely well, also, but I thought it was our kids that came off the bench that really gave us some big moments tonight."
"In that second quarter, four starters were out with foul trouble. Mineral Point made a bit of a run at us, but I'm happy that our bench players didn't give all of the lead away, which is an improvement."
"Our defense and pressure did a nice job. We got some good looks and hit some shots, and seven of our ten girls scored tonight. We knew Mineral Point would be a challenge for us as they are a good team, and they will have a good season," concluded Myers.
"They shot it well," said Pointer coach Mitch Wainwright. "We were able to get them into some foul trouble, but they have so many different players that can score. We did a great job with Rachel Slaney for most of the game, as she causes a matchup problem for us, but then we couldn't stop her in the fourth quarter."
"I blame myself for not having the girls ready for tonight. I need to do a better job of recreating the intensity teams like Barneveld bring in practice. This will be a defining week for us coming up, even though it's only week three of our season," added Wainwright.
Mineral Point has a busy, and challenging, week ahead. The Pointers travel to defending Division 4 state champion Cuba City Thursday, host Fall River Saturday afternoon, and visit Black Hawk Tuesday.
The Fall River game last year was a turning point for the Pointers--the non-conference victory against the tough opponent started to put Mineral Point on a winning streak when they needed it most. "I think they might have underestimated us last year, but they won't make that mistake again. They will look at our schedule and see we've already played Dodgeville, Barneveld, and Cuba City and they will be ready for us Saturday," said the Pointer coach.
The Barneveld girls are off now until Friday, December 12 when they travel to Argyle.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
B: 19-16-17-21--73
MP: 11-15-13-8--47
BOX SCORE
BARNEVELD (fg-ft-tp) 73: Fargo 1-0-3, H. Whitish 12-0/1-27, M. Whitish 4-2/2-11, Schave 2-2/2-6, Cannoy 1-0-2, Slaney 6-7/7-19, Oimoen 2-1/1-5. Totals: 28-12/13-73. Fouls: 17. Three pointers: H. Whitish 3, Fargo 1, M. Whitish 1.
MINERAL POINT 47: Staver 4-2/5-11, Aschliman 2-0/1-5, Chambers 3-0-7, Qualley 3-0-7, Schmitz 0-2/2-2, Schultz 5-5/6-15. Totals: 17-9/14-47. Fouls: 8. Three pointers: Aschliman 1, Chambers 1, Qualley 1, Staver 1.
