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Mineral Point first-year coach Matt Austin found that the combination of defense and feeding the post was a good one to spring on the Dodgeville girls basketball team for a 61-40 win in both team's season opener Friday night.
The game was close for most of the first half, but the Pointers put a little space between the two teams with a run to close out the first half and hold a 30-22 lead.
Then it was the second half when the defense and getting the ball inside came in.
"We had talked about being the aggressor," Austin said. "It was our defense that won the game for us."
The Pointers limited the Dodgers to just 18 points in the second half.
"We played like a team, Austin pointed out."It was nice to see that this early in the season. It was a good team win."
He pointed out that McKenna Reichling "stepped up tonight as a leader. She did a very good job tonight."
Reichling, a senior, led all scorers with 19 points, including hitting 11 of 15 from the free throw line. She continually drove the bucket. She also grabbed eight rebounds and had seven assists.
Junior Nicole Johnson and senior Kyla Lindsey added 13 points apiece. Johnson, who had 12 rebounds and four steals, went 5x6 from the line. Lindsey, who was credited with six steals, hit her team's lone three pointer.
Mara Aschliman pulled down six boards.
The Dodgers were led in scoring by sophomore Olivia Argall, who put in 12 points, including two shots from downtown.
"Their size hurt us," said Dodgeville coach Josh Busch pointing to Johnson, who at 6' led in rebounds. "We have some talented kids, but we have to play together. We showed some flashes, but we weren't consistent."
"We have to understand what our identity is," he added. "But that's what non-conference games are for. We have to get it for conference games."
"Mineral Point did a nice job of help defense and got a lot of turnovers," Busch said. And we were a little weak with the ball."
The Dodgers host Sauk Prairie Tuesday night.
SCORE BY HALVES
Dodgeville 22 18-40
Mineral Point 30 31-62
BOX SCORE
DODGEVILLE 40 (fg, ft, tp) Phillips 1-2/2-4, Breuer 0-0/2-0, Heimerl 2-1/3-5, Ludwig 2-2/5-6, Borne 3-0-6, Blume 2-0-4, Argall 4-2/2-12, Pierick 0-1/2-1. Totals 15-8/18-40. F-23. FO-Heimerl. 3-pointers: Argall 2.
MINERAL POINT 61: Johnson 4-5/6-13, K. Lindsey 5-2/4-13, Mara Aschliman 2-0-4, James 4-1/2-9, Springer 0-1/2-1, Reichling 4-11/15-19, Chambers 1-0-2, Macy Aschliman 0-0-0, Totals 20-20/31-61. F-19. 3-pointers: K. Lindsey 1.