---

Regional finals games are supposed to be fairly close one.
Saturday night the Barneveld girls took on Ithaca and it was a close one.....for the first four minutes.
Final score: Barneveld 64, Ithaca 30.
The Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Eagles were knotted at four, but then Barneveld sophomore sharpshooter Hannah Whitish buried the first of her five three pointers of th e night. Then Rachel Slaney got a steal, but off that Hannah Whitish missed a runner. Slaney got the rebound, but missed the putback. She got the next rebound, but this time she didn't miss.
The score stood at 9-4 and the Eagles were off and running. Their pressure defense caused five turnovers in the next seven possessions and they held an 18-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
They went up by as much as 27-7 midway into the second frame with Ithaca senior guard Jordan Cockroft breaking their scoring drought when she hit a three pointer.
The Eagles put an exclamation point on the second period when Hannah Whitish came up with a steal on an inbounds pass and made a lay-in just prior to the buzzer for a 36-13 lead.
The Eagles didn't let up as Hannah Whitish opened the third quarter with a three pointer, Slaney made a bucket, was fouled and sank the free throw. Mia Whitish nailed a trey, Hannah hit anther from downtown and McKenzie Sporle hit from inside for a 50-16 lead. Slaney added a three pointer, a bucket and a free throw and Hannah Whitish came up with yet another three and a lay-in and the quarter ended at 61-22.
Eagle senior Kaitlyn Walker nailed a three with 6:34 left in the fourth for a 64-22 lead and that meant continuous clock the rest of the night.
Barneveld coach Jim Myers emptied his bench for play the rest of the game.
Hannah Whitish led all scorers with 21 points with Rachel Slaney adding 19.
Cockroft connected for 14 to lead the Lady Bulldogs.
"We wanted to apply pressure and the kids worked really hard in the first half. We maybe didn't always convert like we wanted to, but we got a lot of tipped balls and eventually converted," said Barneveld coach Jim Myers. "I think we wore them down and frustrated them pretty early."
"I thought Rachel Slaney) had a nice game for us and Maggie (Oimoen) came in an spelled Kenzie (Sporle) when she got in early foul trouble. She made her presence known inside and got a lot of rebounds."
The Eagles (24-0) go to Mineral Point Thursday night for sectional semifinal play against Belmont (17-7) from the Six Rivers West.
The winner goes to La Crosse Logan the following night for a 7:00 match-up with the Gilmanton (12-11) and Hillsboro (21-4) winner to earn a trip to D5 state.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
I 7 6 9 8-30
B 18 18 25 3-64
BOX SCORE
ITHACA 32 (fg, ft, tp) Adsit 0-1/2-1, K. Clary 4-0-10, Jump 0-0/1-0, A. Clary 0-0/1-0, Cockroft 3-8/14-14, J. Laue 2-0-4. Totals 9-10/19-30. F-15. 3-pointers: K. Clary 2.
BARNEVELD 64: Udelhofen 1-0-2, Sporle 1-2/2-4, Straubhaar 1-1/1-3, Owens 0-0-0, Kleppe 0-0-0, Walker 1-0-3, H. Whitish 8-0-21, M. Whitish 2-0-6, Fargo 0-0-0, Schave 0-0/2-0, Evans 0-0-0, Roberts 0-0-0, Slaney 6-6/7-19, Carden 0-0-0, Oimoen 2-2/5-6, Totals 22-11/17-64. F-18. 3-pointers: H.Whitish 5, M. Whitish 2, Slaney 1, Walker 1,