Chris Caporale sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader photo by Chris Caporale Bonduel’s Danee Collier changes direction to get past Suring’s Courtney Heimerl in the first half on Monday night’s 55-35 victory.
The Bonduel Bears had a distinct size advantage over the Suring girls basketball team Monday night.
Along with that, the Bears were the quicker team, all night long, but the main reason the Eagles were able to stick around with the Bears for the first 24 minutes of the game was the effort they put into rebounding.
After a defensive switch to a 1-3-1 zone, and forcing a total of 33 turnovers, the Bears opened up the game with fastbreak scores en route to a 55-35 victory.
The Eagles, who were held scoreless over a 7-minute stretch in which Bonduel used turnovers and quick scores to create an 8-point advantage, needed junior Greta Sleeter to make a 3-point field goal with 55 seconds remaining in the half to cut the lead to five.
“I was a little disappointed with the way we rebounded the basketball in the first half. I think they had a lot of second chances,” Bonduel head coach Jerry Reinke said.
Bonduel also missed many easy baskets in the first half, including close to 10 layups to allow the Eagles to remain in the game.
Suring also worked hard on getting rebounds on both ends of the court, which allowed them to out-rebound the Bears Monday night.
“I think the fact that we out-rebounded a team that is quicker than us and bigger than us probably does say something about how hard we were working,” Suring head coach Shaun Wagner said.
The Bears then used a 12-0 run in the middle of the second half, sparked by six straight points by junior Kailee Pedersen, to pull out to a 35-20 lead and never looked back.
Pedersen led the Bears in scoring with 11 points, as Emily Sorenson added 10 points. Taylor Weier posted seven points, to go along with seven rebounds for Bonduel (6-3), as Sorenson added five steals. Danee Collier and Weier each had four steals.
The Eagles were led by junior Greta Sleeter’s 12 points on three 3-point field goals. Az Van Bellinger added nine points, while Katie Stegeman had eight points.
The Bears, who have suffered two close losses over the past week, will have to continue to improve over the break if they want to compete for a Central Wisconsin Conference-8 title.
“I hope they take away that we have to work a lot harder over Christmas break,” Reinke said. “I mean, we’re a work in progress. We’re 6-3 at the break. We could be better than that, but it is what it is. We’ve played well at times in the first half of the year. We definitely can work on fundamental stuff over the break.”
Suring (35)
Stegeman 4 0-0 8, Van Bellinger 2 4-6 9, Lenz 1 4-5 6, Sleeter 3 3-4 12.
Bonduel (55)
Collier 3 0-0 6, H. Sorenson 2 0-0 4, E. Sorenson 5 0-0 10, Reinke 2 0-0 5, Weier 3 1-4 7, Pues 1 0-0 2, Pedersen 4 2-2 11, Gehm 1 1-1 3, Wudtke 3 1-3 7.
Suring 14 21 — 35
Bonduel 19 36 — 55