Chris Caporale sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader photo by Chris Caporale Menominee Indian freshman Senihseah Wayka passes to a teammate in the second half of Thursday’s 51-44 season-opening victory over Oneida Nation at home.
The Menominee Indian girls basketball team made 60 percent of its free throws in the final two minutes to keep Oneida Nation from mounting a comeback in Thursday’s 51-44 season-opening home victory.
Holding onto a 3-point lead with two minutes to go, senior Autumn Chevalier stepped in for a cramping Kendra Webster to make one of two free throws, before Illiana Sechrist, Chevalier and Taylor Olson each knocked down one of two free throws for the five point lead.
Chevalier stepped back up to the line with one second left to earn her final two points of the game from the charity stripe and give the Eagles (1-0) the 7-point victory.
“We need to convert on open opportunities like that where we’ve got the ball with the clock stopped. We’ve got to be able to get points there,” Rice said. “We’ve got to knock them down.”
The Eagles had pulled ahead by 10 points midway through the second half when Herlinda Hernandez made 3 of 4 free throws for Oneida (0-1), and then Briana Blackowl hit another free throw to cut the deficit to 6.
“We need to work on moving our feet more because we fouled them a lot, and they made their free throws, and that’s how they stayed in the game with us,” Webster said.
Thunderhawks senior Laiyah Lee stole the ball from Chevalier at midcourt for a fast-break layup to close out a 6-0 over nearly five minutes over game time, but Alyssa Corn stopped the bleeding with an offensive rebound and layup.
Oneida’s Yelih Rodriguez scored the next 5 points on her own, getting an old-fashioned, three-point play, and then a runner 40 seconds later to pull within one.
“We were slow footed on a lot of traps we were trying to get on the sideline and just hip-checking them, and then stepping over a second too late in the lane so we weren’t able to get a steal or challenge a shot and gave them a lot of easy buckets,” Rice said.
Faith Munson had a layup with 2:01 left in the game before the Eagles finished it out at the free-throw line. Nine Eagles players scored in the game.
Menominee Indian is off for the next 11 days before facing Tri-County in the Central Wisconsin Conference-10 opener on Nov. 29. The Penguins won the conference last season.
Rice hopes the adversity in the opener can help against stiffer competition.
“I think for them to be in a tight game, it’s really going to pay dividends if we’re in another one, like we want to be with Tri-County,” Rice said.
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Oneida Nation (44)
Barber 3 5-11 12, Rodriguez 3 5-9 12, Blackowl 1 0-0 2, Hernandez 1 5-7 7, Lee 2 2-4 6, Killspotted 2 0-2 5.
Menominee Indian (51)
Lyons 2 0-2 6, Chevalier 1 4-6 6, Olson 0 1-2 1, Webster 3 0-1 8, Wilber 0 2-2 2, Waupoose 2 0-2 5, Corn 2 3-6 7, Munson 5 1-4 11, Sechrist 2 1-3 5.
Oneida Nation 24 20 — 44
Menominee Indian 26 25 — 51