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One thing that can be said is the Barneveld girls basketball team is one big happy family.
It makes no difference if it is a team sleepover, a night out eating wings together or playing basketball the girls treat each other like sisters, like family.
Saturday night it was all basketball and nothing but basketball. And the family played it well to say the least.
A 69-31 win over the Gilmanton Panthers that got so one-sided the mercy clock kicked in during the fourth quarter, saw the entire family take part and assured the Golden Eagles of a return trip to the WIAA state tournament. This will be the ninth time a Barneveld girls team has made the field.
The Eagles will face Owen-Whitte about 3:15 p.m. or 20 minutes after Wisconsin Rapids Assumption takes on Heritage Christian to open the Division 5 field at the Resch Center Thursday in Green Bay.
The Eagles finished second last year, beating South Shore in the opener then losing to Assumption by four points. The Eagles lost twice last year, both times to the Wisconsin Rapids team.
This year the Eagles have run the table with a 26-0 record as they head to Green Bay. One of the wins was over Assumption in a holiday tournament.
Saturday's win was set in motion early when the Eagles raced to a 22-6 first quarter lead, using defense to create offense and pounding the ball into the post when it was time to set things up. They forced the Panthers to cough up the basketball 10 times the first quarter.
Rachel Slaney scored the first two of her 26 points on an assist from Hannah Whitish to get the Eagles started and Hailey Kleppe buried a three pointer for a 5-0 start.
Cheyenne Lowenhagen made the second of two free throws to put Gilmanton on the board but a 12-0 run turned the first quarter into a romp. Slaney finished the frame with eight and Maggie Oimoen used her 6-2 frame to dominate the shorter Panthers and put in four points from the paint.
Threes by Hannah Whitish and Kristen Udelhofen, along with a couple stuff backs by Mia Whitish, keyed the second quarter that saw the Eagles race to a 22-11 difference by the end of the frame. The high point of the night for the Panthers may have come at the buzzer when Brittany Laehn drilled a 50 foot shot that counted for three points.
Laehn went on to be a force for the Panthers with 17 points.
A 10 point outburst by Slaney left no doubt the Eagles were not about to let the Panthers back into the game and by the end of three the score was 63-24. After Hannah Whitish scored on a spin move to start the fourth quarter the running clock was implemented. The score at the time was 65-24.
Laehn hit her third three pointer and Lowenhagen put in a pair of free throws and scored from the baseline but that was all the Panthers could manage.
McKenzie Sporle scored the last four points of the game for Barneveld and the Eagles dribbled out the clock.
"The girls set the goal to get back to state early and now we are playing next week," an elated coach Jim Myers, who has taken the girls to state at the Fieldhouse, Kohl Center, Alliant Center and Resch Center in their nine trips.
"We knew Gilmanton had some good scorers and we knew we couldn't leave them open," Myers said when the Eagles had one day to prepare for the Panthers. "We concentrated on what we do best and hoped the rest would take care of itself. We knew we had to get it done with pressure."
And pressure it was. The turnovers by the Panthers topped the 20 mark.
"We did a better job of getting the ball inside tonight to Rachel and Maggie," Myers said. "We didn't do that against Belmont (in the sectional semifinal game)."
"The girls really don't care who scores," Myers said. "Hannah had some great passes tonight starting with her dish to Rachel to get us our first basket."
"Rachel is expanding her game which is nice to see and she uses her quickness," Myers added. "But we have some workers like Hailey Kleppe and McKenzie Sporle. Without them and the rest of the team we wouldn't be where we are today."
"We are proud to be going back and representing Barneveld."
Senior reserve player Kristen Udelhofen said getting back to state is like climbing a ladder.
"We climbed it last year and finished one step short. We hope to take the it one more step this year."
Senior Danielle Straubhaar, one of the first Eagles off the bench to fill a guard position, said the Eagles started working for a return trip their first game in summer league.
"It started there," she said. "We knew we had the talent and couldn't wait for the season to start working on our goal. We had to start it there."
Senior reserve post Samantha Evans said losing by four in the championship game last year has motivated the girls to get back this year.
"We are having so much fun as a team right now," Evans said. "We want to get through Thursday and have another chance to play in the championship game again."
Reserve senior guard Kaitlyn Walker said the girls have worked hard all season with the hope to go back to state again.
"We want to go there and play our hearts out," she said. "We want to bring the gold ball back to Barneveld."
Senior reserve guard Cayla Carden said the girls have wanted to go to state since they were little kids.
"We wanted to go to Madison and play basketball at state," she said. "But with the move to Green Bay we want to go there. It is an amazing atmosphere right now."
McKenzie Sporle has played a lot of basketball over her four years at Barneveld and knows this team is special.
"I couldn't ask for a better team to play with," she said. "Everyone gets along so well and we work as a team. We know our defense is what has to drive us."
Hailey Kleppe said the team has come along way and has played its way back to state.
"We are right where we want to be," she said.
She said coach Myers asked the girls this past week what they think defines Barneveld girls basketball and they agreed it is defense.
"We need to bring it," she said. "We know we can do that because the energy on this team is amazing."
SCORE BY QUARTERS
G 6 11 7 7 31
B 22 22 19 6 69
BOX SCORE
GILMANTON  31: (fg-ft-tp) Laehn 6-2-17, Lowenhagen 3-5-11. T, Bloom 1-0-3, Severson 0-0-0, Kuba 0-0-0, Branger 0-0-0, M. Bork 0-0-0, Hovey 0-0-0, Long 0-0-0, J. Bloom 0-0-0, H. Bork 0-0-0, Rud 0-0-0 Totals 10-7/9-31 Fouls-12 Fouled out-Severson
BARNEVELD 69: Udelhofen 1-0-3, Sporle 3-3-9, Straubhaar 0-1-1, Owens 1-0-2, Kleppe 1-0-3, Walker 0-0-0, H. Whitish 4-0-9, M. Whitish 3-0-6, Slaney 11-3-26, Caren 0-0-0, Oimoen 5-0-10, Fargo 0-0-0, Shave 0-0-0, Evans 0-0-0, Roberts 0-0-0 Totals 29-7/15-69 Fouls-11
3 point goals:
G-Bloom 1, Laehn 3
B-Udelhofen 1, Kleppe 1, Slaney 1, H. Whitish 1