Chris Caporale sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader photo by Chris Caporale Shawano seniors Teagan Monfils, left, and Sarah Hokenstad press Sturgeon Bay’s Morgan Nelson during the first half of the Hawks’ 64-16 victory Tuesday.
A few empty possessions early on in Shawano’s season-opening girls basketball game against Sturgeon Bay made it seem to be a low-scoring affair.
Quickly though, senior guard Teagan Monfils scored four points to open up the game, and the Hawks’ press forced many turnovers, leading to easy scores on the offensive end in a 64-16 victory Tuesday night.
“We came out in the press because we’re kind of a fast team, so sometimes we don’t always come out hard and fast because we have been sitting around and whatnot, so coach had us start with pressing to get us pumping, and it really helped us get some really good steals and get our momentum going,” Monfils said.
The Hawks jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first few minutes before a turnover led to a Clippers’ fast-break score. From there though, Shawano buckled down, not allowing Sturgeon Bay to get an easy look at the basket.
Shawano (1-0) defended well, giving Sturgeon Bay (0-1) little space to move the ball anywhere on the offensive end.
“The intensity is what we preach. We know what we are supposed to do,” Shawano head coach Ryan Koenig said. “Now it’s about the trust factor with the team and knowing that we can pressure, pressure and know we have some help behind us with our teammates.”
With under seven minutes remaining in the half, the Clippers scored on back-to-back possessions to reach six points, but the Hawks had already opened up a large lead.
Senior Sydney Schreiber hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Hawks a 36-8 advantage heading into the locker room.
After halftime was much of the same, with Shawano holding onto a 43-11 lead briefly before consecutive threes came from seniors Megan and Morgan Klitzke to widen the margin even further.
“We were taking the shots when we were open,” Koenig said. “After the first couple of minutes, they started to fall. So I liked the execution on the offensive end.”
The team’s depth showed in the game with seven girls scoring six or more points on the night, led by Monfils and Megan Klitzke, who each scored 12.
However, Koenig noticed that his team became tired late in the first half, something that the Hawks will have to fix moving forward if they want to continue playing an up-tempo style.
“We really played hard for probably the first 10 minutes, and we were gassed late in the first half,” Koenig said. “Shots were short, so the takeaway is that we have to get in better shape.”