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"Hey coach, we are not out of it."
Maybe that was not said in conversation between the Dodgeville girls basketball team and coach Josh Busch but it was a message anyway. And it was delivered loud and clear.
After trailing Richland Center for all of the first half and going into halftime behind 22-14 the Dodgers were not hanging their heads when they returned to play. Instead they put a charge into their play and won handily 51-46. They used a 37-24 second half to put the SWC win in the books.
Seniors Olivia Argall and JoJo Heimerl led the second half run. Heimerl shot the ball extremely well with a trio of three pointers and 14 of her 16 points the last 18 minutes. Argall, who kept the Dodgers in the game the first half with eight of their 14 points, came up with 13 the second frame
Freshman Marley Busch also found her way into double figures with 10.
KJ Louis and Aliyah Ruhland both netted 14 to lead the Hornets.
Coach Busch felt the game was a tale of two halves.
"In the first half we struggled," Busch said. "Defensively we were good in spurts, but overall we just did not play with the energy we need to compete. Offensively was a struggle too. Sometimes we get in our own way and tonight was one of those nights in the first half."
"That all being said we were only down eight at the half, and that is a testament to our competitiveness," he continued. "To play the way we did, and give Richland Center credit they did a nice job of putting us in that position, and to only be down eight we thought we were in a good spot."
But the second half was what Busch needed to see from his squad.
"To start the second half out defensive energy was much better, we still struggled a bit on offense to start but we were able to stay within striking distance early," said Busch. "We made a change in how we were attacking the 1-3-1 and that seemed to spark us. Olivia and JoJo got us going knocking down a couple threes, attacking the rim and getting to the free-throw line. Marley knocked down some timely looks. Maggie again was solid on both ends of the floor."
"Again we got great effort plays by AJ Phillips, Audrey White, McKenna Reilly, and Emma Blume," said Busch. "Those four rebounding, communicating, and getting on the floor after loose balls makes us better, and they have done a great job doing that."
I was proud of the way we battled and believed in ourselves. Confidence is a powerful thing, we never thought we were out of it.
SCORE BY HALVES
Richland Center 22 24 46
Dodgeville 14 37 51

BOX SCORE
RICHLAND CENTER 46: (fg-ft-tp)
Ruhland 6-2-14, Schmitz 1-1-4, Louis 5-2-14, Kaszubski 0-0-0, Gander 3-1-7, Keller 3-1-7, Monson 0-0-0, Totals 18-7/14-46 Fouls-16
DODGEVILLE 51: Phillips 0-1-1, A. White 0-0-0, Heimerl 5-3-16, Reilly 0-0-0, M. White 0-3-3, Busch 4-1-10, Argall 7-6-21, Blume 0-0-0 Fouls-13
3 point goals:
RC-(3) Schmitz 1, Louis 2
D-(5) Heimerl 3, Busch 1, Argall 1