Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School seniors Annelies Young, left, and Megan Klitzke attempt to get a loose ball during the second half of Friday’s 62-42 loss to New London.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Megan Klitzke defends New London junior Olivia Steingraber late in Shawano’s home loss Friday.
The man-to-man defense that the Shawano Community High School girls basketball team applied to visiting New London on Friday night caused many turnovers throughout the first half.
Unfortunately, the Hawks also were turning the ball over just as often, and after New London forced a defensive switch in the second half, Shawano could not keep pace and eventually fell 62-42 in both teams’ Bay Conference opener.
Shawano finished with 34 turnovers, including 21 in the first half.
Shawano forced six turnovers in just the first 3:30 of the game, but could not get untracked offensively, scoring 16 points in the half .
Shawano’s quick guards were able to penetrate the middle of the Bulldogs’ defense, but from there, could not find ways to get the ball to the scorers.
“I thought the girls did a great job of getting their hands up and getting tips,” New London head coach Troy Krause said. “We talk about getting deflections, deflections, deflections, and we got a lot of those, and we look to go. We look to push, and I thought our girls did a good job of that.”
New London freshman Kate Christian hit a 3-point field goal with 11:26 remaining in the first half to tie the game at 5-5, then hit three free throws and another 3 to give the Bulldogs an 11-8 lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the night.
A rough stretch closed out the half, with neither team scoring for five minutes, as both team were plagued by turnovers.
Shawano senior Sydney Schreiber hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two points with 48 seconds remaining before halftime, but that was as close as the Hawks would get.
Although the Hawks (2-2, 0-1 Bay Conference) cut down on turnovers in the second half, the Bulldogs took complete advantage of each one, pushing the margin to 10 points before the Hawks switched defenses.
“Once we switched out of our half-court man-to-man defense to our full-court press and our zone, we struggled,” Shawano head coach Ryan Koenig said.
New London (3-1, 1-0 Bay) continued the pressure and slowly extended its lead throughout the rest of the game.
“I thought we were ready for this game,” Koenig said, “so I guess that’s where I’ve got to improve as the coach.”
Christian led all scorers with 24 points.
Shawano was led by Morgan Klitzke’s 11 points. Megan Klitzke followed with 10 points.
Koenig said the Hawks’ scout defense allowed the offense to move the ball too easily in practice, too.
“How you practice is how you are going to play,” Koenig said.
New London (62)
Christian 6 8-12 24, Pethke 0 2-2 2, Mix 1 2-2 5, Solberg 2 0-0 2, Steingraber 4 0-2 8, Rohen 2 3-4 7, Madsen 1 3-4 5, Gould 1 0-0 2, Porath 3 0-0 7.
Shawano (42)
Monfils 0 1-2 1, Mo. Klitzke 3 4-4 11, Me. Klitzke 4 2-4 10, Schreiber 1 0-1 3, To. DePerry 2 0-3 4, Ta. DePerry 1 3-3 5, Hokenstad 1 0-0 2, Dunnam 1 4-7 6.