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Prep girls basketball: Assumption takes first from Columbus in Marawood South
December 21, 2007
By Jon France

For the Daily Tribune

Sometimes it only takes one. In the case of the Wisconsin Rapids Assumption girls basketball team, it only took one quarter to knock the Dons of Marshfield Columbus from the ranks of the unbeaten in the Marawood Conference on Thursday night.

The statistics for the first, second, and fourth quarter show a game where Marshfield actually outscored Assumption 33-32, had a better field goal percentage (38 percent to 35 percent), and had fewer turnovers (14 to 8).

"I thought we had so much more intensity in the first half," Dons coach Darin Green said. "We were down on the floor for the loose balls and created much better opportunities for ourselves in the first half."

The third quarter proved to be the undoing for Marshfield Columbus, however. In that third quarter, Assumption shot 8 of 16 from the floor, with five of those buckets being assisted. Assumption lowered its turnover total to just two and was able to pull down seven rebounds.

"We tried our press in the first half," Royals coach Joe Birkhauser said. "And we were able to slow them down in it, but we weren't able to create any opportunities through turnovers. So at halftime we switched to our 2-3 zone and it worked because of the girls effort on defense."

The Royals offensive struggles in the first half were in part because the front line of Lizzy Slovensky and Liz Sigler struggled to find their shot, going just 0 for 8 in the first half. All that meant, however, was that Assumption's backcourt duo of Hannah Osowski and Jada Straub had a chance to score. The two combined to score ten first half points while Slovensky and Sigler found their shot.

The front court would get it going in the second half, as the two would finish with 17 points and 14 rebounds.

"It was a great team effort," Birkhauser said. "Those girls all played great, but I thought a key was how our bench played in the first half. They did a great job of keeping us in the game when we weren't playing our best ball as a team."

Both teams will be taking a break for the Holiday season, with the Dons not playing until they face off with Medford on January 3rd at Medford, and the Royals waiting until January 8th when they play at Auburndale.

Royals 52, Dons 42

Assumption 11 14 20 7 -- 52

Marshfield Columbus11 13 9 9 -- 42

ASSUMPTION (52): Hannah Osowski 13, Jada Straub 12, Lizzy Slovensky 12, Anna Kinzel 6, Liz Sigler 5, Katie Moran 2, Emily Heeg 2. Totals 20-44 10-17 52.

MARSHFIELD COLUMBUS (42): Brenna Malovrh 14, Marissa Draxler 7, Paige Albrecht 6, Nikki Karl 4, Emma Burrill 4, Samantha Sydow 3, Nikki Rueggsegeger 2, Morgan Bielke 2. Totals 16-47 8-15 42.

3-pointers: Assumption 2 (Straub 2), Marshfield-Columbus 2 (Draxler, Karl).

Records: Assumption 7-1, 4-1 Marawood Conference; Marshfield Columbus 5-1, 3-1 Marawood Conference.

Assumption’s Anna Kinzel dribbles towards the basket as she works around the Columbus Catholic defense during Thursday’s game at Assumption High School. TOM LOUCKS/Daily Tribune